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Vol. iX.

The Glory of God U Intelligence.

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No. 12

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ORGAN OF YOUMC MEN'S MUTUAL
IMPROVEMEMT ASSOCIATIONS

PUBLISHED BY THE QENER-AI^ BOARD
Joseph E Smith) „.., _ « t t ^ , (Busln

Edward H Anderson j" Ed it era. He be r J . Qranh J j^^^^^

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fnl-ered ah >hgro3hOfflce. 5al^ Lake ahy^in-ah.as Scccnd-Gass Tlclhr.

OCTOBER, 1906.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

H. L. Mulliner Frontispiece

Internal Evidences, Book of Mormon H.L. Mulliner 913

The "Cadmanites" Hubert E.Woolley 924

A Woman and a Dog 929

Galveston (Illustrated) President James G. Duffin 930

John Storm, the Zealot. A Poem J. L. Townsend 936

Life of St. Paul for the Young— XXXIV— XXXV- Georg-e L. Weed 937

Through Doubt and Debris. A Story Josephine Spencer 948

Where Does Missionary Work Cease? Francis M. Shafer 958

To a Departing Missionary Thomas Hull 960

Missing Links William Halls 962

The Home Call. A Poem Nephi Anderson 965

Prayer W. B. Dougall, Jr. 966

Whatis Worth While. A Poem Maud Baggarley 969

Editor's T'ble— Close of Volume Nine

Thrift 970

Messages from the Missions 974

Questions and Answers— Revelation on War P76

Notes 977

In Lighter Mood ..., 978

Our Work— Address to M. I. A. Officers '.

Notes on Organizations 979

Events and Comments Edward H. Anderson 987

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DIRECTORS.

Joseph F. Smith
Anthon H. Lund
John R. Winder
T. G. Webber
James Jack
John T. Caine
Angus M. Cannon
Francis M. Lyman
George Reynolds
Angus J. Cannon

Hyrum M. Smith
Asahel H.Woodruff
Ashby Snow

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ORGAN OF THE YOUNG MEN'S MUTUAL IM-
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^ TlaltmwX, i306-r

Nearly a decade ago the first number of the Era was printed. It
was the outgrowth of a revival in Mutual Improvement work which has
since grown to great proportions. The Era has undoubtedly done its
share for this advancement and growth. Thousands have grown «p to
appreciate its literature, the standard of which has been kept wp and
bettered from the beginning. While we started in with a modest •iafeu-
lation of 2,000, we are printing 10,000 for Volume X, which begins on
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those who love good literature; but still we want more. Are you one
of our readers? If not, we kindly invite you to enlist; and if yom are,
we earnestly invite you to renew your subscription.

OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF THE ERA. '^ "^

As the Organ of the Mutual Improvement Associations of the
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has no capital, except the subscriptions annually invested by its readers.

These comprise all the missionaries of the Church in the nations of the
earth, as well as a majority of the progressive young men of the Church
in the gathering. While it is essentially a Young Men's magazine, it
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and instructive literature. Historical matter, current events, biography
doctrinal and inspirational essays, poems, and stories, appear in its
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All the profits go to the betterment of the magazine, or are spent in the
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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ERA.

^ From time to time, our readers have noticed testimonials from the
missionaries, and from other readers, concerning l^he-ERA, which have
been very flattering and satisfactory to the publishers. Here is one
coming from a friend of Elder J. Wilford Booth, in far-off Syria, from
one of the noted school teachers of the Gregorian Church, in Aintab,
and Northern Syria, who is a non-"Mormon" but who has read th© Era
for the past five years:

The first eharaeterittic of the EBA is its simplicity. You can hardlj meet a
sentence therein which may not be understood by any careful reader.

As a non" Mormon", though I cannot endorse all the ideas contained in the
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in speech, which is a common error of our times when dealing with religio-philo-
sophical matters, is a stranger to the Era.

The seeond characteristic of the ERA is its practical religious aspect. Perhaps
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now most surely an esteemed friend of your readers.

The third characteristic of the EBA is unity in thoughts. It being an organ of
"Mormonism," should, of course, advocate "Mormon" Doctrines. That is natural-

■>■!)...<

but what seems worthy of congratulation is that unity by which one writer not only
complements but completes what the other Bay«.

Let me close with this sentence: The Improvement Era is a splendid maga-
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/ G. MOUQHAMIAN.

9th August 1906, Aintab, Turkey.

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MANUAL FREE WITH THE ERA.

The Senior manual this year treats on "Modern Revelation," and
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find it developing the best there is in you.

The Junior Manual needs no introduction as it has been tested and
found full of directive and attractive force as a guide to an acquaintance

Willard Done, Geo. Albert Smith,

Le Roi C. Sno\^ , Thomas A. Clawson,

Frank y. Taylor, Louis A. Kelseh,

Rudger Clawson, Lyman R. Martineau,

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H. L. MULLINER.
The Winner of the Improvement Era Scholarship Prize.

IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Vol. IX. OCTOBER, 1906. No. 12

INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF
THE BOOK OF MORMON.

BY H. L. MULLINER.

[A year ago the General Board, Y. M. M. I. A., offered one year's scholarship
in any one of the three Church schools located in Salt Lake City, Provo and
Logan, to the ypung man between the ages of sixteen and twenty- two, and a
member of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, who should write
the best essay on the "Internal Evidences of the Truth of the Book of Mormon.''
In response to this offer there were fifteen essays received ; and it is the unani- .
mous opinion of the committee appointed by the General Board to judge of the
merits of these essays, that the following essay by H. L. Mulliner of lona, Idaho,
is the best among them, and that he has fairly won in the contest. We return
thanks to the young men who responded, and only regret that we cannot send
them all to school.

H. L. Mulliner, whose portrait is presented in this month's Era, was born in
Lehi, Utah, and is the son of Joseph and Emily Woodard Mulliner. At the age
of two years his parents moved to Idaho, and settled upon a farm, where the young
man resided until he was eighteen. The family consists of six children, one boy
older, and four girls younger than himself. His father was bishop of the lona
ward for several yoars after its organization, and later acted as counselor to the
President of the Bingham Stake. He was a representative from Bingham County
in 1896, to the State Legislature, and was elected to the Senate, in 1898. Through
sickness he was incapacitated for work or business of any kind in the spring of
1900, at which time his son, H. L. Mulliner, was attending the Ricks' Academy,
Rexburg. He had only been there some three or four months when, owing to the

914 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

sickness of his father he was immediately compelled to discontinue school. In
September, 1901, he attended the Latter-day Saints University, Salt Lake City,
where he took a business course during that year ; the following year he was en-
abled to attend, through the kindness of Elder C. W. Penrose, who permitted him
to do odd labors for his board, and through President J. H. Paul, who provided
him a position in the bookkeeping department which netted him enough to pay his
tuition and incidental expenses. Leaving school, he was employed by E. H. Dyer
& Co., who were erecting the sugar factory at lona, and later obtained a position
with a mercantile company, at Idaho Falls, which position he resigned, in
March, 1904, to fill a mission to the Northern States. Returning from his
mission on the 3rd of April, 1906, he again obtained employment with the same
firm, as bookkeeper. During his absence on a mission, he labored twelve months in
Indiana, eight months as traveling elder, and four months as president of the con-
ference. A most important work which he did while there was prevailing upon the
people of Robinson, Green Co., to unite with the elders in building a church.
They made him the chairman of the committee, composed of citizens, to attend to
the construction of the building which, with the lot on which it stands, was after-
ward deeded to the Latter-day Saints. He then labored in Chicago for thirteen
months, the greater part of the time as secretary of the mission, and had charge
of the proof-reading of an edition of ten thousand copies of the Book of Mormon,
which was published while he was laboring there. The Era congratulates him
upon winning in the contest, and wishes him success in his studies. He has
chosen to attend the L. D. S. University. — Editors.]

Evidence has been produced practically establishing the fact
that the Book of Mormon is not such a book as an impostor could
have made if he would. It is the purpose of this paper to show
that it is not such a book as an impostor would have made if he
could.

The Book of Mormon avows itself a revelation in the strictest
and highest sense. It does not claim to have been written in this
day, as its author was moved upon by the Holy Spirit, but testi-
fies to having been so written anciently upon the plates of metal,
in which tangible form it was given to a modern translator by an
angel, acting under the immediate direction of the Lord. The
concluding chapter promises also that to the honest and faithful,
God will make manifest the truth of it "by the power of the Holy
Ghost." No other book making such highly miraculous preten-
tions and promises has ever been given to man. If these profes-
sions were false, the ''author" knew it, and was therefore a con-
scious impostor. What purpose could an impostor have had in
making such a book?

THE TRUTH OF THE BOOK OP MORMON. 915

No time in history has been less favorable to new revelation
than the first half of the last century. The eighteenth century,
prolific in religious imposture, and literary forgeries, had taught
the world bitter lessons. Early in the nineteenth the impositions
of Joanna Southcott, Richard Brothers, Hans Rosenfeld, and Wil-
liam Huntington, all of whom laid claim to direct revelation, were
exploded, leaving the people in no mood to tolerate another
avowed revelator, however modest his claims. The members of
the Catholic church, then, as always, accepted nothing extrinsic.
The protestant world, hopelessly divided on the principles of the
Bible, believed in its exclusiveness with remarkable unity and fer-
vor. As a result of these combined influences, the people were
ready to take for granted, without investigation, that every re-
puted new revelation was an imposition.

The reception accorded the Book of Mormon, then, was' wh^t
might have been expected.* The opposition was proportionate to
its pretentions. It encountered unprecedented bitterness, and at no
time has had the slightest favor with the multitude. Even in more
recent years, with increasing investigation and slightly more tol-
erance, in the American localities where the book sells most readi-
ly, it is shown by actual report that the missionaries dispose of
fewer than four books each during a whole year, selling them at
exact cost. By ascribing to God what he might have retained to
advantage, the author, if false, perpetrated an impious forgery,
clipped his own wings, and, commercially speaking, committed a
signal blunder. Had he claimed that a hidden manuscript-history
of ancient America had been discovered by any other than super-
natural means, a moderate circulation of the published work might
have followed, but to give to it a divine origin was fatal to its
popularity. It was useless that proof of its divinity accompanied
its claims. First of all, its coming was said to be unscriptural;
and, if both reasonable and scriptural, entirely unnecessary. The
book was an unwelcome superfluity, involving, as the world
thought, neither obligation nor profit to anyone.

* It is difficult to think of any one thing that Joseph could have done, that
would meet with more opposition from all the Christian world, without exception,
than the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon. — William Halls, in the Era for
August, 1905.

916 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

That a conscious deceiver would antagonize this formidable
array of prejudices with a previous knowledge of their existence
seems incredible ; that he would have opposed them advisedly with-
out motive, unthinkable. If, then, we accept for consideration the
hypothesis that our "author" was a forger, we have but two pos-
sible explanations for this seeming irrationality. Either he did
not foresee, or seeing, was willing to forego immediate popularity
for some advantage that the stamp of divine authorship upon the
book would give him over a few who might accept it as being
divine.

That the "author" knew beforehand of the exact unfavorable
conditions related above is shown by the following quotations from
the Book of Mormon itself:

Eor it shall come to pass at that day, that the churches which are built up
* * * shall contend one with another, and their priests shall contend one with
another, and they shall teach with their learning, -s^- * * and they say unto
the people, Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept ; the Lord and the Redeemer
hath done his work. * * * if they shall say, there is a miracle wrought by
the hand of the Lord, believe it not ; for this day he is not a God of miracles ; he
hath done his work.*

And your churches, yea even every one have become polluted. And be-
cause of pride, etc. , they [the members of the church] have all gone astray,
save it be a few who are the humble followers of Christ: They [the Nephites]
shall write the things that shall be done among them, and they who have dwindled
in unbelief [all save it be a few] shall not have them, for they shall seek to de-
stroy the things of God.

And it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away,
and it shall come even as one who shall speak from the dead. And it shall come
in a day when the blood of the Saints shall cry unto the Lord; * * * Yea, it
shall come in a day when the power of Gcd shall be denied. For behold, at that
day shall he [Satan] rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to
anger against that which is good.t

The popular belief that the canon of scripture was full, and
that more revelation was superfluous, was among the greatest
difiiculties the Book of Mormon encountered. With this the
"author" has shown his familiarity by a number of incidental
statements. Here are a few:

*Page 117: 3-6.

t Page 566: 36; 118: 14; 112: 17; 565: 26; 565: 27; 118; 20.

THE 2 RUTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. 917

And agaiu I speak unto you, who deny the revelations of God, and say they
are done away, that there are no more revelations.

Wo be unto him that shall say, We have received the word of God, and we
need no more of the word of God, for we have enough.

And because my word shall hiss forth, many of the Gentiles shall say, A
Bible ! A Bible ! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.

Wo unto them that turn aside the just for a thing of naught and revile
against that which is good .*

Nothing could be clearer than that the "author" of these
statements, who was able to give the exact language used in de-
nouncing his book, had a remarkable prevision of the universal
unfriendliness to a new revelation. The contention is that he
writes so clearly of it, that he writes not prophecy but of what he
did know — experience. All that is contended for here is that this
rare insight will be accepted as evidence at least that the
"author" did not seek popularity; but rather that he antago-
nizes the passion and prejudices of his age with a perfect knowl-
edge of their existence and the relentless opposition to which they
would subject him.

Whatever might be said of the Book of Mormon, no one can
read it and feel that it is the product of religious fanaticism. The
author of it, if he were a deceiver, was in conscious rebellion
against God, and his insight and the consistency of his work pro-
claim him surpassingly sane. Nor was he blinded by enthusiasm.
The whole of his plan was foreshadowed in the book, completed,
according to its own prediction, and its genuineness attested by
eleven witnesses before the work contemplated was even printed.
No age perhaps has been free from mistaken enthusiasts who have
assumed distinction as fulfilling some prophecy or tradition, but
who are generally exonerated from the charge of seeking prima-
rily for personal advantage. Impostors also, more or less conscious
of deception, have been carried along by enthusiasm, pride or
obstinacy to sacrifice and even suffer rather than retract. But we
can defy history to show where an intentional deceiver of sound
mind, and impiety enough to forge the name and authority of God,
ever deliberately planned a laborious scheme that was opposed to
every human policy and totally unproductive of any possible ad-

* Page 567: 7; 119: 29; 120: 3; 118: 16.

918 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

vantage to its perpetrator. If, then, it is shown that the
"author" of the Book of Mormon aimed at no personal benefit;
that instead, the authority for which he consciously forfeited pop-
ularity was used to denounce every existing advantage in the field
he proposed to enter, our thesis— it is not such a book as an impos-
tor would have made if he could— will have been sustained.

In parable and by direct statement the Book of Mormon con-
demns all the systems of religion existing at the time of its com-
ing forth. Thus the originator of it in^posed upon himself the ob-
ligation of introducing a new system, differing from them all
and agreeing with the Bible, since he testified to the authority of
the latter. This obligation he did not hesitate to assume, as is
shown by the following passages:

And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence his work, among
all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his
people upon the earth.

But if they will repent, and hearken unto my words, I will establish my church
among them.

And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its
numbers were few.*

Since it is clear from these quotations that a church organ-
ization was contemplated, it is necessary only to discover the kind
of government advocated, and the advantages vouchsafed to lead-
ers and rulers therein.

It is needless to say that absolute forms of government have
always had exclusive favor with religious impostors of all degrees
of sincerity. Reformers whose piety is above suspicion have as-
sumed an absolute dictatorship. The ''author" of the Book of
Mormon could have reserved this right to absolutism without the
slightest suspicion of remonstrance. Instead of doing so, he ad-
vocated government by the voice of the people, and denounced
monarchy and autocratic power. In (ioing this, authorities of the
greatest wisdom and favor with God are enlisted.
Of Jared's brother, the Book of Mormon says:

And because of the knowledge of this man, he could not be kept from be-
holding withm the vail; therefore he saw Jesus and did minister unto him.f

*Page 122:8; 529:22; 31: 12.
t Page 577: 19.

THE TRUTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. 919

The attitude of this great seer is given impressively in the
following passage:

And it came to pass that the people desired of them that they should anoint
one of their sons to be a king over them. And now behold, this was grievous
unto them. But the brother of Jared said unto them, surely this thing leadeth
into captivity.*

While the government of the Nephites was yet ecclesiastical,
Nephi, their first leader, who was "highly favored of the Lord" and
"loved exceedingly" by the people, gave his opinion in this para-
graph:

And it came to pass that they would that I should be their king. But I,
Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, I did fpr them
according to that which was in my power, t

Mosiah, whom the people esteemed "more than any other
man; for they did not look upon him as a tyrant, who was seeking
gain," said:

Now I say unto you that because all men are not just, it is not expedient that
ye should have a king or kings to rule over you. J

Alma, who established the Christian church in the land of
Lehi-Nephi, thus advocated free government:

Behold, it is not expedient that ye should have a king ; for thus saith the
Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think him-
self above another ; therefore I say unto you. It is not expedient that ye should
have a king. §

Moroni, the first, was a great prophet and military commander
' Vhose heart did glory in doing good * * * yea, in resisting
iniquity." Of him the Book of Mormon says:

Yea, verily, I say unto you, if all men had been and were, and ever would
be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken for-
ever. II

In this day there were a faction who were called kingmen.

* Page 583: 22.
tPage71:18.
jPage230:16.
§ Page 213: 7.
II Page 378: 17.

920 IMPROVEMENT EH A.

For they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to over-
throw the free government, and to establish a king over the land.

And it came to pass that Moroni commanded that his army should go against
these king-men, to pull down their pride, and their nobility, and to level them with
the earth, or they should take up arms and support the cause of liberty.*

This same Moroni ends an epistle to Pahoran, the Chief Judge,
thus:

Behold, I am Moroni, your chief captain. I seek not for power, but to pull it '
down.f '

It has been shown that the organization contemplated was
that of a church. The following passages are added, in closing
this part of the argument, to show that the Book of Mormon teach-
es impressively that equality and freedom are inviolable principles
of true church government.

And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain Chief Judge over
the land, took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among
them: for the freemen had covenanted to maintain their rights, and the privileges
of their religion, by a free government.

Now this Amlici had , by his cunning, drawn away much people after him ;

* * * and they began to endeavor to establish Amlici to be a
king over the people. Now this was alarming to the people of the church, *

* * for they knew, that according to their law such things must be
established by the voice of the people.

Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better causp, for they were not
fighting for monarchy nor power ; * * * but they were

fighting for their rites of worship and their church. {

It is conceded that these principles of government, although
strongly enforced, would be destructive only to the ambitions of
an impostor who sought for power or complete control. There
remains the possibility that a government less absolute in form
was contemplated, or that advantages similar to those enjoyed by
religious leaders today, in more loosely organized systems, were re-
served. Before arriving at any conclusions it will be important,
therefore, to investigate the privileges and duties of ecclesiastical
officers in general, as defined by the Book of Mormon, and especial-

* Page 378: 17; 387: 5; 388: 17.

t Page 419:36;

t Page 387: 6; 237:2,3; 363:45.

THE TRUTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. 921

ly the commandments given to those who would be engaged in this
particular organization. Careful attention is asked to the de-
cisive declarations that follow. It is considered that they dispose
of every human advantage in religion, and show clearly the atti-
tude of the Book of Mormon on the questions discussed. This
passage is pertinent:

He [the Lord] commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts ; for, behold,
priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world,
that they may get gain, and praise of the world ; but they seek not the welfare of
Zion. Behold the Lord hath forbidden this thing.*

Alma, who was the first chief Judge and a great high priest
in the true Church, would be unquestioned authority among Book
of Mormon believers. The following quotation will show his atti-
tude on this subject:

And it came to pass that in the first year of the reign of Alma in the judg-
ment seat, there was a man brought before him to be judged * * And
he had gone among the people, preaching to them that which he termed to be the
word of God, * * * declaring unto them that every high priest and
teacher ought to become popular: and they ought not to labor with their hands,
but that they ought to be supported by the people; * * * But
Alma said unto him, Behold, this is the first time that priestcraft has been intro-
duced among this people, * * * and were priestcraft to be enforced
among this people, it would prove their destruction, f

Speaking of an ideal condition among the people, who "were
steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God,"
the Book of Mormon says:

And when the priests left their labor, to impart the word of God unto the
people, the people also left their labors to hear the word of God. And when the
priests had imparted unto them the word of God, they all returned again diligently
unto their labors; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers; for the
preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than
the learner ; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man accord-
ing to his strength. J

The instructions given by the first Alma, in founding the

* Page 113: 29.
tPage 233:2, 3, 12.
JTPage 235: 26.

922 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Church anciently, would likely be considered especially binding^
upon anyone attempting another organization of it afterward.
Here is a part of the account of the founding of it by Alma:

And they were called the Church of God, or the Church of Christ * *
* And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authori-
ty of God was added to his Church. And it came to pass that Alma, having
authority from God, ordained priests; * * * ^^^ lie also command-
ed them that the priests whom he ordained should labor with their own hands for
their support; * * * j^j^^ tjig priests were not to depend on the

people for their support; but for their labor were to receive the grace of God.*

The rulers and leaders who were held out as worthy of office
and the confidence of the people are those who, while in the unre-
munerated service of the people, supported themselves with their
own hands. Mosiah and Benjamin, who were highly respected for
their wisdom and greatness, are among this class. Alma, who for
many years was president of the Church, and the most zealous re-
ligious worker of them all, said:

I have labored * * * with mine own hands for my support;

* * * notwithstanding my many travels round about the land to de-

clare the word of God unto my people, and notwithstanding the many labors which
I have performed in the Church, I have never received so much as even one senine
for my labor, t

Likewise, the three sons of Mosiah, who were "all men of God,"
preached the gospel while "suffering every privation, and depend-
ing upon the mercies of God." In short, all the true "prophets,'^
and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently. Only
those of the wickc d king Noah and the Zoramites, and such others
as were emphatically condemned by the Book of Mormon, enjoyed
ease or luxury.

Speaking specifically of the coming of the plates, and the re-
ligious movement foreshadowed in them, the Book of Mormon fur-
ther says:

For He, (the Lord) truly saith, that no one shall have them to get gain. J

* Page 202: 17, 18, 24, 26.
tPage 323:32, 33.
X Page 564: 14.

THE TRUTH OF THhJ BOOK OF MORMON. 923

To this we add a portion of a commandment of God through
Nephi:

But the laborer in Zion, shall labor for Zion ; for if they labor for money,
they shall perish.*

That the mass of impressive admonitions, prophecies, and ex-
amples of this nature, with which the Book of Mormon abounds,
would have totally thwarted the purposes of a selfish impostor
seems apparent. It is difficult to see what advantage an impostor
could find among a body of worshipers who would accept this book
as revelation from God, given for their instruction. It should
be remembered also that priestcraft, as defined by the Book of
Mormon, was a popular institution at this time. The clergy who
shaped and guarded religious opinions, standing between the peo-
ple and every innovation, practiced it well nigh universally. From
the standpoint of popularity alone, there would have been a great-
er advantage in advocating than in condemning it.

Recall now the Book of Mormon's promise of divine confirma-
tion, the uninviting prospects of persecution and death held out to
bedievers, its oflfensive denunciation of all contemporary religions,
and its uncompromising zeal in advocating a return to the unre-
munerative regulations of the true Christian Church. To this add
the inevitable conclusion of this paper that the Book of Mormon
was not only unproductive of any conceivable selfish advantage,
but that, at the expense of certain denunciation, its author con-
demned every existing human policy in religion, shutting up the
way to ease, wealth, distinction, power, and popularity against
himself. To think that this was the work of an impostor is to
wantonly misunderstand human nature.

*Pagell3:31. '
lona, Idaho.

THE "CADMANITES."

BY HUBERT E. WOOLLEY, FORMERLY MISSIONARY IN THE EASTERN
STATES MISSION.

[It has become a common practice for students in colleges and universities to
write graduating theses; but that a missionary who is about to leave his field of
labor, and graduate from his mission, should write a thesis , is a new idea. We
are in receipt of a letter from President John G. McQuarrie,of the Eastern States
mission, in which he encloses this article. He says: "As the author, Elder
Woolley, will soon be released, he thought he would write a thesis for graduating,
as his brother was required to do when he graduated from the Medical College at
Ann Arbor, this year. He chose the 'Cadmanites' as his subject. I think the
subject is interesting, faith-promoting, and instructive. The withering of this
branch, which was cut off from the true vine, affords a most striking illustration
of the fact that the Church organization draws strength and power from the au-
thority. Spirit and favor of the Lord, rather than from the native ability of men.
The ability which Sidney Rigdon displayed when he was loyal to Joseph Smith, and
his manifest weakness when separated from him, must ever stand a striking wit-
ness of the Prophet's divine calling." — Editors.]

"The rights of the Priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of
heaven, and the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the
principles of righteousness.

"That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to
cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control,
or dominion, or compulsion, upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree
of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the
Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn. Amen to the Priesthood, or the authority
of that man."— Doc. and Gov., 121: 36, 37.

With the excommunication of Sidney Rigdon, September,
1844, after his vain attempt to establish himself as guardian of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, begins a chapter
of history that will no doubt prove to beinteresting to the readers

THE "CADMANITESr 925

of the Era, in spite of its pathos — pathetic because it reveals to
us that there are still some individuals who might have accepted
the gospel had it been presented to them in fulness and truth, but
who have been blinded and led away into by-paths by evil and de-
signing men, and became enemies of God. Sidney Rigdon returned
to Pittsburg, organized a church of his own, with himself as presi-
dent, and twelve other men as apostles, etc., and began proselyt-
ing under most auspicious circumstances. He was supported not
only by his own native ability and eloquence, but by his excellent
training in church organization and doctrine, which he had obtained
from several years of intimate association with Joseph Smith, from
almost the inception of the Prophet's ministry. Moreover, he was
wise in the selection of a field of operation, choosing a section
where he was well known among several thousand people who had
already accepted the gospel, but who were unable to follow their
leaders and brethren in their exodus westward, and were conse-
quently left alone, as it were, and at the mercy of cunning men
and "every adverse wind of doctrine. ' ' The Rigdon organization
never became strong either in numbers or powerful men, however,
and soon "crumbled into decay." Rigdon, himself, lost his influ-
ence over his followers, many years before his death, which oc-
curred in Allegheny county, state of New York, in the year 1876.
After the disintegration of the church, a portion of the people
was brought under the influence of and held loosely together by
one William Bickerton, a former "presiding elder" of the Rigdon
followers at West Elizabeth, Allegheny county. Pa. Not being
thoroughly satisfied, 'however, with the claims of Rigdon concerning
his right to organize a church, and feeling, as he often said, that
his "claims were insecure, moth-eaten," Mr. Bickerton began an in-
vestigation of the claims of the Church that went west, with the
result that he became convinced that the Priesthood had gone
there, too, and sent to Council Bluffs, Iowa, about the year 1850,
for two elders who went to West Elizabeth and baptized him and
his followers, and ordained William Bickerton to the office of an
elder, only. For a time after his baptism. Elder Bickerton was ex-
tremely successful as an expounder of the scriptures, and suc-
ceeded in convincing many souls of the restoration of the gospel
and the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the mission of Joseph

926 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Smith. But upon the publication and public advocacy of the doc-
trine of plurality of wives, in 1852, he refused to become recon-
ciled to the principle, and withdrew from the Church, persuading
the major portion of the people who had accepted the gospel in
his neighborhood to go with him. For several years thereafter,
the various branches of the Church that had broken away con-
tinued to meet in their accustomed places under their former local
elders, where they kept up their preaching, though gradually drift-
ing farther and farther away from the truth. On July 7, 1862,
some of the more prominent men among them succeeded in get-
ting the people together in a general conference, and on the
strength of an alleged revelation, received by William Bickerton,
in which he claimed to be called of the Lord to act as prophet for
the people, they organized a church with William Bickerton as
president, and ordained a number of men to be "apostles."

The first movement worthy of mention after the organization
was effected, was an attempt made, in 1868, to carry the Book of
Mormon to the Lamanites of Kansas. The movement was unsuc-
cessful, the party, which was headed by Mr. Bickerton himself,
having returned to Pennsylvania, after an absence of three months.
Later, in 1874, Mr. Bickerton claimed to have received another
revelation, directing him and his people to go to Barton county,
Kansas, and "in the Great Bend of the Arkansas river, establish
a gathering place for the people." Mr. Bickerton was successful
in getting only a few to follow him westward. Those who refused
to go were excommunicated from the church. A controversy
arose over this action, led by Apostle William H. Cadman, with the
result that Bickerton lost his position in the church and was in
turn excommunicated by the eastern faction.

The leadership fell to Mr. Cadman, who was appointed presi-
dent in 1880. But owing to the many schisms which arose (among
them being the revolt of Mr. Bickerton' s former second counselor,
George Barnes, and a considerable number of people, who, after
several years of wandering alone, succeeded, about twenty years
ago, in finding their way into the true Church, where they now
comprise what is known as the "New England Branch of the West
Pennsylvania conference,") and a feeling of indifference and leth-
argy which seems to have come over the people, the church or-

THE "CADMANlTESr 927

ganization became pretty well broken up, the * 'apostles' quorum"
was lost sight of, and many of the branches were scattered and
neglected. This condition continued and grew wcrse until the
year 1904, when a final attempt to re-organize was made, at a con-
ference held July 6, of that year, the organization being slightly
different from thoso preceding it.

In the Bickerton organization, the leading officials consisted
of a president with two counselors, and only eleven apostles men-
tioned; in 1904, no president or counselors were named, but the
apostles' quorum contained twelve men. Mr. Cadman was chief
apostle in the new organization, but for years previous to his
death was incapacitated for work, owing to a partial mental disa-
bility. He died at his home. West Elizabeth, Pa., November 6,
1905, having survived Mr. Bickerton about two years.

The church is still struggling to exist under the leadership of
Apostle Sandy Cherry, of Roscoe, Pa. A degree of enterprise has
been shown the past year in the publication of a four-page monthly
paper called the Gospel Reflector, edited by Mr. Cherrv. In
numbers the people are few. During Sidney Rigdon's most pros-
perous days, his church grew to contain several hundred members;
Mr. Bickerton presided over considerably fewer; today they do not
number, all told, and at a liberal estimate, more than one hundred
souls. This estimate includes a half dozen families who have re-
cently m^ved to St. Johns, Kansas, where the whole body of the
church, hope to go in the near future, to "better their temporal
affairs."

Such are the main historical facts concerning a small organ-
ization of people, locally known as "Cadmanites," located in several
of the industrial towns of western Pennsylvania, as gleaned from
conversations — practically the only available source of information
on the subject, there being no histories or records kept by the
church — had by the writer, while laboring as a traveling elder in
the Monongahela River district, during the winter of 1905-6, with
many of the members of the church in question, as well as with
several of the older brethren who have been gathered into the
' 'Utah" Church from the Cadman ranks.

In doctrine,there has been a marked degeneracy from the be-
ginning. And although they still claim to be the church of the Res-

928 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

toration, from their belief and teachings one would scarcely rec-
ognize any of the great features that are to characterize the
Church of Christ in the dispensation of the fulness of times.
There has been a constant ignorance, or lack of appreciation, of
the order of succession of power, or authority, shown, beginning
with Rigdon's insubordination, and repeating itself in Mr. Bicker-
ton's usurpation of power, or influence, over the people under his
charge. So that little surprise is occasioned by the sudden expul-
sion of Bickerton from his own organization, and the election of
Mr. Cadman to leadership. As a people, the "Cadmanites" pro-
fess an acceptance of the Book of Mormon, or "Nephite Record"
as they please to term the book— in order apparently to escape
the stigma that attaches to the word "Mormon." — though they
are doing nothing toward getting the record before the nations of
the world. When asked why they were not putting forth some
effort to that effect, Mr. Cherry was frank enough to state that
' 'they are still waiting for the Lord to command them to. " When
Mr. Bickerton organized for himself, in 1862, he and his followers
accepted only part of the Doctrine and Covenants; the Cadmanites
today reject the entire book. There has also been during the ad-
ministration of Mr. Cadman a return to the old cry of "Fallen
Prophet" against Joseph Smith, much to the chagrin of some of
the older followers of Mr. Bickerton, who were taught by that
man to revere the memory of the Prophet. It is not surprising,
theref ore,to learn that this people have no conception whatever of
the so-called '"higher principles" of the gospel as given to the
world by the modern Seer, Joseph Smith, such as the doctrine of
pre-existence of spirits, celestial (i. e. eternal) marriage, the mis-
sion of Elijah, or even a well defined idea of the mission of the
restored gospel, in not only saving individual souls, but also in pre-
paring a people and a temple to whom the Master can ' 'come sud-
denly."

In conclusion,we offer only one observation. History has vin-
dicated, and is continually vindicating, the wisdom contained in the
solemn words of prophecy and revelation presented at the beginning
of this article. And the brief history just narrated is but another
example added to the list that goes to demonstrate the futility of
men, however clever they may be, or however intimate their knowl-

♦ THE "CADMANITES." 929

edge of the law and order of the gospel, endeavoring successfully
to imitate the work of the Almighty and pattern a church after that
founded on divine laws revealed through the Lord's prophets.

Safely may the Apostle and Prophet Brigham Young exclaim:
' 'All that want to draw away a party from the Church after them,
let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper. "

Kanab, Utah.

A WOMAN AND A DOG.

(Selected.)'

I have just been looking at the pictures in a prominent magazine of a dozen
•r more "women and their dogs," only two of whom (the women) own in public
print to being mothers, and only two are unmarried.

There is one woman I know who instructs her maid to let "Lottie" out to
meet her when returning home; and will pick her "Lottie" dog up, kiss it on the
mouth, and rapturously exclaim: "Did darling come to meet mama!" Faugh! It
makes me sick. If I were a man with a wife who wouldn't "mother" anything
but a dog, I'd take the first train to Utah or some other country where women
are willing to be what God designed them for, and children are considered a heaven-
sent blessing. And a man has got down pretty low when he consents to stand ' 'father' '
to a brute. We all sympathize with her when she sings "the lips that touch liquor
shall never touch mine, ' ' but I think he is a great deal worse off when he has to
share his kisses with my lady's pug. Just imagine the Madonna pictured holding
a puppy instead of the baby Christ? "Sacrilege?" Not a bit of it. Every
woman is the living exponent of potential motherhood ; and every woman in whom
is the spirit of maternity is a visible Madonna.

0, yes; I like dogs — faithful, honest affectionate creatures — in their place;
but childhood's place is not a dog's place. "The horrid thing!" (that's me),
cries Mrs. Fitz-poodle Smythe, "when she knows I gave a thousand dollars last
year to the Orphan's Charitable Institution." Bless your soul, children don't
want institutioning they want mothering. Think of the arms holding a brute
against a womanly breast when there are so many, many little baby heads pillowed
only on cold charity. Think of a woman turning away from grieving rose- leaf lips to
kiss a slimy muzzle. Think of the heart- hungry little ones to whom blows are as
many as the caresses you give to your dog. Think of the little human buds, choked
by the weeds of poverty and neglect, that might grow fit for heavenly gardens in
the very places where you are raising dog-weed. Go to, woman; the savage
mother, with her babe strapped to her back, is ages nearer the womanly ideal
than you. Unless you can "evolute" a "special dispensation," heaven will be a
mighty lonesome place for you with only the little ones there, and Fido and his
kind shut out. — Frances Gilbreath Ingersoll.

GALVESTON.

BY JAMES G. DUFFIN, PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL STATES
MISSION.

Galveston is of especial importance to the people of the
south-west as being their principal seaport, doing more foreign
business than any port south of New York. It ranks third as an
exporting port, and along with New Orleans as a cotton port.
More than forty steamship lines enter Galveston harbor, and nine
trunk lines of railway carry the products of the south-west into
the port, and return laden with those brought in by water; and
transportation facilities are constantly being increased to meet
the growing trade of this important port. The wharf frontage of
Galveston is more than six miles, furnishing accommodation for
ninety or more large sea-going vessels. This frontage is owned
by the United States government, state of Texas, and several rail-
way and wharf companies. The Southern Pacific railway recently
reconstructed its docks, and put in immense grain elevators to fur-
nish better facilities for handling its growing business. With the
Isthmian ship canal completed, Galveston will be of increised im-
portance to the south-west.

Galveston island, on which the city is built, has an interesting
history. It was named in honor of Conde de Galvez, governor of
Louisiana, who, in 1732, sent out an expedition to explore the
coast west of New Orleans. When the expedition reached the
island, one white man was found upon it, subsisting by hunting and
fishing.

In 1816, Galveston bay was chosen by Herrera as the most
favorable place from which to carry on his privateering enter-

GALVESTON. 931

prises against the Spanish trade. The republic of Mexico was
organized, claiming the rights of a regular government, and Louis
de Aury was made commander of the fleet and governor of Texas.
Mina, a brave, exiled Spanish warrior, and Col. Perry, one of the
few survivors of the battle of Medina, fought near San Antonio,
Texas, August 18, 1813, joined the adventurers. Spanish com-
merce on the gulf was seriously crippled, and all seemed to go well
for a time. But Herrera, being compelled to return to New
Orleans, trouble broke out between the leading spirits on the
island, and the entire force, after burning all their buildings, finally
sailed away. This was the end of the first settlement on the island
of Galveston.

Shortly after Galveston was abandoned by the followers of
Herrera, Jean Lafitte, a daring, adventurous spirit, who had done
loyal service at the battle of New Orleans, took possession of the
island. Venezuela had given him papers authorizing him to prey
upon the commerce of Spain. A thousand adventurers soon joined
his standard. A Mexican republic was again organized on the
island, and all who joined Lafitte were required to take the oath
of allegiance to Mexico. Lafitte and his followers were so success-
ful in their reprisals upon Spanish commerce that it was almost
destroyed. Some of Lafitte 's seamen, failing to obey his com-
mands not to interfere with any other ships than those of Spain,
the United States government compelled him and his colony to
leave the island.

In 1836, when Santa Anna moved upon Harrisburg, which at
the time was the seat of government of the republic of Texas,
the president and his cabinet withdrew to Galveston island, unin-
habited at the time except by a small garrison of troops, where
they remained until after the decisive battle of San Jacinto, and
Texas had gained her freedom from Mexican rule.

On October 4, 1862, Galveston island was captured by Com-
modore Renshaw of the United States navy and a land force of
Federal troops; but on the morning of the first of the following
January, it was retaken by the Confederates under Magruder, in a
brilliant engagement by both land and sea, remaining in possession
of the Confederates until the close of the war.

But the more recent history of Galveston — that relating to

932 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

the destruction by the great storm of September 8, 1900, and the
wonderful work being accomplished for the protection of the city
against wind and wave in the future — is of more interest to
people of today. It will be remembered that on the night of Sep-
tember 8, 1900, a furious wind drove the waters of the gulf over
the city and through the channel, piling them up in the bay.
In receding, this immense body of water swept over the city,
meeting the waters of the gulf near the center of the city, carry-
ing destruction and death before it. Millions of dollars' worth of
property and from six to eight thousand lives were lost during that
night of horror.

One thing of especial interest to the Latter-day Saints, in
connection with the storm, is the fact that four of our elders were
in the city, doing missionary work — they were Horace L. Johnson,
Peter A. Norton, Heber N. Folkman and Samuel Shaw. They all
escaped uninjured.

As soon as those who remained in the city had recovered
from the first effects of the calamity that had come upon them,
their attention was turned to the probable effects the storm would
have upon the future of the city. It was seen that if Galveston
as a seaport was to attain the importance to which her geographi-
cal location and fine harbor entitled her, some means must be
adopted to guard against a recurrence of the scenes of Septem-
ber 8. The difficulties that confronted those who took hold of
this problem were such as might have discouraged less determined
men. The memory of the thousands of lives lost, and the millions
of dollars' worth of property destroyed, was still fresh in the
minds of the people of the country; a great part of the city had
been swept clean of its buildings; the elevation of the city being
so low — the highest part being but seven feet above mean low tide
— there might be at any time a visitation as destructive as that
through which the city had recently passed ; added to this was the
more serious condition of the city's finances. The floating debt
January 1, 1901, was $204,974.54; the bonded indebtedness, be-
tween two and three millions !of dollars, the interest on which the
city was unable to meet when, after the storm, the board of com-
missioners was given control.

It is in times of adversity that we learn the real character of

GALVESTON. - 938

an individual or a people. The people of Galveston were now to
be put to the test; nobly they were to respond to it. A board of
engineers, composed of men of wide experience — Gen. H, M.
Roberts, Alfred Noble and H. C. Ripley — was employed to decide
upon some feasible plan for the protection of the city. After
carefully looking over the situation, the board decided to recom-
mend the construction of a sea wall on the east and south sides of
the island — the gulf side — running from a connection with the
government jetties to avenue A, and Sixth street to Thirty-ninth
street, the wall to be reinforced by a back fill of one hundred feet
the height of the wall ;and the raising of the grade of the city. The
recommendations of the board were adopted, and the contract for
the construction of the sea wall was finally let to John M.
O'Rourke and George M. Steinmetz. Work was commenced Octo-
ber 30, 1902, and the great wall was finished July 30, 1904.

For a description of the wall we cannot do better than quote
from a work published by A. A. Fink & Co. :

''The wall is a little over three miles in length, sixteen feet
wide at the base, five feet wide on the top, and seventeen feet
high above low mean tide. The foundation of the wall rests upon
four rows of round piling twelve inches in diameter and driven
four feet apart into the ground, forty-four feet down into the clay.
There is also a row of sheet piling just inside the outside row of
round piling, driven into the ground twenty-six feet below mean
tide to prevent undermining. There is also an apron twenty-seven
feet wide by about four feet thick, extending seaward in front of
the wall, composed of solid granite blocks, as a further protection
in case of storms and undermining currents.

"The wall proper is composed of solid concrete, made of
crushed granite from Granite Mountain, Texas, sand from San
Jacinto River, cement from Germany, and water from Alta Loma,
Texas, all thoroughly mixed by immense machinery constructed
especially for the purpose, and tamped into forms and sections;
and to give additional strength, immense steel rods, nine feet in
length, are placed in the wall every three feet."

That one may judge of the magnitude of this great under-
taking, the following figures may prove of interest :

934 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Concrete, 102,000 yards, 150,000 tons or 7,500 car loads; granite rip rap,
100,000 tons, or 5,000 car loads; sand, 40,000 yards, 50,000 tons, or 2,500 car
loads; cement, 135, 000 barrels, 27,000 tons, 1,350 car loads; round piling, 18, 000,
or 1,000 car loads/sheet piling, 4, 000,000 feet, or 750 carloads; reinforcing rods,
10 car loads: total carloads 18,000. This equals one car load of 40,000 pounds,
20 tons, to every foot of completed wall.

The expense of the construction of the wall and making the
back fill of one hundred feet, is borne by Galveston county, while
the expense of raising the grade of the city is borne by the city.
It should be remembered, however, that the city furnishes, ap-
proximately, eighty per cent of the taxable property of the county.
The cost of the sea wall when completed was $1,300,000.

In addition to the between three and four miles of wall con-
structed by Galveston county, the United States government has
built one and a half miles, beginning at the west end of the county's
wall at Thirty-ninth street, and extending westward to Fifty-third
street. The plan of the government wall is the same as that built
by the county, with the exception that the government has used
sandstone in place of granite in its corstruction.

While the building of the sea wall was under way, preparations
were going on for the raising of the grade of the city. May 19,
1903, the governor of the state, acting under a charter amend-
ment provided for by act of the legislature, appointed Captain J.
P. Alvery, John Sealy and E. R. Cheesborough members of the
grade-raising board of the city of Galveston. Mr. Cheesborough,
from whom the writer has gotten much of the information for this
article, was chosen as secretary of the board.

At the first meeting of the board, May 23, 1903, it was ap-
parent to their minds there were two serious problems to be solved,
if the work for which they had been appointed was to succeed.
The first was, that of raising the funds to pay for the work; the
second, that of obtaining the material for raising the crade and
placing it. The first of these was solved through a plan by which
one-third of the cost of the work was to be paid for in cash and
the other two-thirds in five-per-cent gold bonds, the bonds to be
turned over as they are earned by the contractors. The solution
of the second of these problems was in a plan submitted by Messrs.
P. C. Gebhardt and Lindon W. Bates, contractors, of New York.

GALVESTON. 935

The plan so submitted by these gentlemen was as follows: The ma-
terial to be used in raising the grade of the city was to be taken
from the bay and the channel between the government jetties.
Self-loading and discharging dredges were to be used for the work:
a canal two hundred feet wide and twenty feet deep was to be cut
back of the sea wall, the earth from which would be used in mak-
ing the one hundred feet fill back of it. The dredges, propelled
by their own machinery, would enter this canal and force the mud
and water taken from the bay and the canal through discharge
pipes into the districts to be raised; the mud would settle and the
water would return through a channel to the great canal. When
grade was raised to the required height, the canal would be filled
by the same process to the grade of the city.

This plan, it was seen, was entirely feasible, and on December
11, 1903, the contract was awarded Gebhart and Bates by the
city at 18i cents per cubic yard for the filling in place, amounting
to $1,938,175, and by the county for the one hundred feet fill
back of the wall, at 20 cents per cubic yard, amounting to
$142,000.

In raising the grade of the city, 3, 000 houses will have to be
raised, at an estimated cost of $1,000,000, the expense of which
is borne by the property owners; many miles of the street railway
will have to be reconstructed, the estimated cost of which is
$2,500,000; the water system in the raised districts will have to
undergo many changes, which will add another big item to the cost
of this remarkable work. Galveston, without her magnificent
oleanders and beautiful flower gardens, would not be Galveston;
but these will not grow in the salt-soaked sand and mud used in
raising the grade of the city; many are, therefore, piling up the
soil from the streets and their gardens, to be used for soiling pur-
poses when the filling is completed, but most of the soil to be used
for this purpose will have to be brought from the mainland. This
work of rehabilitating the city will add another item of expense
that will reach a figure of no inconsiderable proportion.

The contract for raising the grade of the city provides that the
work shall be completed in 1907. There will be no failure on the
part of the contractors, unless something unforeseen happens to
interfere with the prosecution of their labors, for their four steam

936 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

dredges are working so successfully that they are depositing a suf-
ficient quantity of filling to insure the completion of the work
within the specified time.

The filling is done by districts, and as each district is com-
pleted, the city has men at work surveying and grading the streets.
The plan of reconstruction has in view the paving of the streets
and driveways with sea shell, and the soiling of the streets, espla-
nades and parks to the depth of two or three feet, that the city
may be beautified with trees, shrubs and flowers. When the plan
is completed, Galveston will stand, not only as a monument of the
heroism and energy of its inhabitants, but as one of the safest and
most artistic seaports of the continent.

Kansas City, Mo.

JOHN STORM, THE ZEALOT.

LINES WRITTEN UPON READING "THE CHRISTIAN," BY HALL CAINE.
{For The Improvement Era.)

I hold it true that God knows best By what illusions we forsake

Why we are vertebrates on earth: Our Father's law, to blindly plod

For His creations all attest Through some ascetic path we take,-
That race begets its kind by birth. In cloisters seeking after God !

And if from God's creative laws Man was not made to be alone ;

We change and teach another way— His heart rebels against the worth

If of our whims we build a cause — Of oaths that doom him to disown

Alas! from law we go astray. The very laws that gave him birth.

For God made man to fit a sphere He nearest comes to God who gives
Adapted to this planet's life, In offspring that he leaves behind

He made man twain in sex appear His own true worth; that ever lives
Each for the other— man and wife. To bless and sanctify mankind!

And thus the covenant was made

That gave to Abraham his throne.
Shall Israel's great glory fade?

God asks no man to live alone !

J. L. TOWNSEND.

Payson, Utahj

The Galveston Seawall.

Showing three rows of 50-ft. piling and one row of 30-ft. sheet piling for foundation
and breakwater below the wall.

The Galveston Seawall.

Showing first few sections built to break the waves and frame work required to shape same.

The Galveston Seawall.

Of solid masonry. When completed will be three miles long by i6 feet base
and 17 feet high above foundation

The Galveston Seawall.

Prospective view of a portion of Galveston after grade is raised.

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG.

BY GEORGE LUDINGTON WEED,

CHAPTER XXXIV.
ISLAND OF MALTA— ''TOWARD ROME"— IN PRISON.

The Certain Island — The Islanders — Paul bitten by a Viper — Mistaken for a God —
Ministry of Healing — "Castor and Pollux" — Syracuse — Rhegium — Buried
Fires and Buried Cities — Puteoli — Appian Way — Appii Forum — Three Taverns
— Approach to the City — Via Sacra — The Forum— Julius and Burrus — Prison
Life — Roman Guards — Friends and Helpers — Liberty — Missionary Journeys.

On reaching land, it was found that the island was Melita,
now called Malta. It was then uncultivated and covered with for-
ests. It had not the dense population of today. The people were
called barbarians, but they were better than many such so-called
now. They showed their kindly spirit and welcome to the ship's
company by building a fire to relieve the discomfort and suffering
from rain and cold. That fire will never be forgotten. It is well
remembered by every child who reads or hears the story of Paul's
shipwreck. He whose voice bade his companions to be of good
cheer on the sea, did what he could to make them so on the land.
Ready to do his part, ' or even more, for the comfort of all, he
gathered sticks of wood and placed them on the fire. Hidden
among them was a torpid viper, which was revived by the heat.
Its first act was to fasten itself on his hand, piercing it with its
poisonous fangs. The rude islanders were filled with horror.
They well knew the usual effects of a viper's sting. They watched

938 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

for the immediate swelling of his arm and other signs of poison
throughout his body, which would end in death. They believed
him to be guilty of murder or some other great crime, and that
the viper was an instrument of punishment even though he had es-
caped the dangers of the sea. But when he shook it off from his
arm into the fire, and they saw it had done him no harm, they
thought, as had the people in Lystra, that he was a god, and that
neither sea nor viper could destroy him. We feel sure that he at
once denied this and spoke of the true God as he did to the Lys-
trians who were ready to render him idolatrous worship.

Paul did great and many wonders in the name of Him who
had protected him from death. Publius was governor of the is-
land. For three days he cared for the shipwrecked strangers.
His father was suffering from a terrible disease. Paul visited him,
and put his hands upon him, praying to God, who healed him. The
wonderful news quickly spread throughout the island. Other sick
came to him and were healed. In return for all this the islanders
did what they could for the comfort of Paul and his companions
during the three months of their stay, and supplied comforts and
needs for the continued journey.

Again they sailed for Italy. Again the Apostle of Jesus
Christ was carried in a ship named after heathen divinities, Castro
and Pollux, reminding him of idolatry wherever he went. Land-
ing at Syracuse on the island of Sicily, where the vessel tarried
three days, we may suppose Julius allowed Paul to go ashore as
he had at Sidon, In the mixed population he would find oppor-
tunity to preach the gospel, "to the Jew first and also to the Gen-
tile;" and so founding, as tradition tells us, the first Sicilian
church.

An unfavorable breeze directed his ship's course to Rhegium,
a city whose imagined protectors were the gods after whom the
ship was named. Paul sailed on the bay of Naples, then as now
noted as one of the most beautiful of earthly scenes. Vesuvius,
as quiet as the day was calm, was decked with its vines of green.
No one thought of the hidden fires beneath it that would soon de-
stroy the fair but wicked cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum at its
base, as those from heaven destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lit-
tle did Paul or the wife of Felix, who had so lately met in Csesa-

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 939

rea, think that she and her child would perish together in the aw-
ful catastrophe.

As the Castro and Pollux landed at Puteoli, among the idlers
and merchants crowding the pier, were Christians, the most cheer-
ing sight to Paul, desiring him to tarry seven days. Italian Chris-
tians had long looked for a visit from the apostle, but not in
chains. The news found a rapid way to Rome, where was formed a
plan to give him a joyous welcome even before his eyes beheld the
city.

The Appian Way was the great road leading to Rome. Along
it Paul walked, an old man, a prisoner led by a chain, shattered
by years of labor and suffering, just escaped from shipwreck, not
knowing what trials of body and spirit he had yet to endure. No
marvel if he who had been strength to others on the sea, was ex-
hausted, weak and despondent on the land. He passed through
villages of which only fragments of pavements and tombs remain;
and by vine-clad hills and water courses lined with willows. Weari-
ly he crossed the Pontine Marshes. He reached Appii Forum, then
known as the meeting-place of vulgar crowds; but now remem-
bered for a meeting of another kind. Hither Christians from
Rome, on hearing of his coming, hastened forty miles to greet
him. Among them were doubtless some he had known in the far
east, little dreaming that they would one day meet him in -circum-
stances so changed — their loved apostle in bonds. Ten miles fur-
ther on, at a place called Three Taverns, he met another company
waiting to welcome and honor him, ' 'whom, when Paul saw, he
thanked God and took courage." With a lighter heart he went
the remaining seventeen miles of his journey.

At last from a summit he gained an extensive view — of towns
and villas on neighboring hills; of gardens and acqueducts; of
roads from every direction meeting in a common center — the great
city of Rome. From that summit it was only a confused mass of
buildings; for he could not distinguish the streets and open squares,
nor hovels, from palaces, theatfrs, colonnades, baths and temples.

As he approached the city he met the signs of busy life — the
varied costumes of many nations, and 'of the different classes of
Romans, laborers, beggars and soldiers; wayfarers and horsemen;
the gay and rich in palanquins carried by men, and those in car-

940 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

riages drawn by horses. Among them all, none cared for the for-
lorn prisoner. If they noticed him at all, it was with a feeling of
pity or contempt, for a supposed convict on his way to meet his
just due of imprisonment or execution.

Paul entered Rome in March, A. D. 61. Passing under the
arch of Porta Capena, he was led by his chain along the Via Sacra,
which was more worthy of the name after his feet, weary and
sore, had trodden it. No Roman general who had passed over it
in pomp and pride, could compare with him in greatness. The
richest trophies of war ever carried over it were poverty itself
compared with the treasures he bore. Beneath his soiled and
tattered prison garb was concealed more of royalty than ever wore
the purple robe. No victor's car carried him; but though a cap-
tive in the eyes of men, he was a glorious conquerer in the sight
of God.

The Forum was the heart of Rome, the center of its interests.
There was the golden milestone where met the roads from all prov-
inces. Paul was probably led from there to the barracks of the
Pretorian troops, the pride of the Roman army. The prefect then
in command was Afranius Burrus, a noble-minded Roman and hu-
mane officer.

If Julius delivered Paul to his keeping, it was most fortu-
nate. In so doing he would certainly tell Burrus of the apostle's
life while with him, and of his belief in his innocence. But this
would not secure his liberty. For two long years Paul waited for
the trial that should have been held immediately, and set him free.

Paul's prison life in Rome was not such as he had experienced
in Csesarea. He was permitted to live in a hired house, but was
compelled to have the constant attendance of a guard. This must
have been exceedingly annoying to an active spirit like his, prompt-
ing him to go about doing good, as his Master did. His voice was
not heard in the synagogue, nor street, nor market-place, nor
schoolhouse, as it had been in other cities. His hired house was
the meeting-place. There was always one whom he could teach —
the guard at his side. Having a diiferent one eveiy few hours,
many had the opportunity of learning Christian truth, and of see-
ing the Christian spirit in him. His character was a great con-
trast to that of many with whom they had to do; and his teach-

LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 941

ings were very different from any they had ever known. Many of
them became Christians. In the soldiers' barracks there was a
Christian band. Its influence extended even to the royal palace:
there were "saints in Csesar's household."

But soldiers were not the only listeners to Paul in his home.
While Jews were his enemies, probably influencing the emperor
against him. Gentiles visited him and welcomed his teachings.
They were chiefly of the poor and lower classes, and slave?. He
had the companionship of some of his old friends. Timothy and
Luke, Aristarchus and others were still his helpers; coming to him
for instruction, and then carrying messages to the churches he
had established, and bringing report of their condition. Some-
times he had visitors from those churches, bringing Christian
greetings and money for his needs. Sometimes they carried back
letters of affection and instruction, which are known as the ' 'Epis-
tles of the Captivity."

We have little definite knowledge of Paul after his two years'
imprisonment. Tradition begins where Luke's history ends in the
Book of Acts. It is supposed that he was acquitted of the crimes
with which he had been charged, and for which he had long suf-
fered. Being set at liberty, he made other missionary journeys;
some claim as far as Spain and even England, though this is very
uncertain. From his letters, we know he went to Asia Minor,
visiting old churches and perhaps founding new ones. Once more
he preached the gospel under the shadow of the temple of the
goddess Diana, at Ephesus; and again he looked across the Helles-
pont to the once heathen Europe, but where now many churches
called him their Christian Father.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE END.

The Burning of Rome — Nero and Christians — Arrest of Paul — Mamertine Prison
Friends — Letter to Timothy — Paul's Cloak — Parchments — Memorable Words
— The Death of Paul — Nero— Summary.

In was on the 19th day of July, A. D. 64, that a terrible fire
broke out in Rome. It raged six days and seven nights, destroy-
ing temples and palaces and homes of every kind of the rich and

942 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

poor, who had to seek shelter even in tombs of the dead. It is
believed that Nero himself set fire to the city. Acting the part
of a buffoon, he played upon a musical instrument while the city
was burning; careless of the terror he beheld, and deaf to the
shrieks of his wretched people. He charged innocent Christians
with the burning of Rome. Then followed most bitter persecu-
tion. Multitudes of them were tortured to death. Some were
disguised in the skins of bears and wolves, and, in the presence of
twenty thousand spectators in the Colosseum, mangled to death by
famished dogs. Others were nailed to crosses, doomed to a linger-
ing death of agony and shame. Others were covered with pitch
and set on fire — living torches — illuminating the garden of Nero
who mingled with the mob, dressed as a charioteer, driving heart-
lessly among his agonized victims.

Paul was called the ringleader of the Christians. It is im-
agined that he was charged with exciting them, before he left
Rome, to the burning of the city. He was brought back and im-
prisoned a second time — not in his own hired house, but in a dun-
geon of the Mamertine prison, still pointed out near the ruins of
the Roman Forum. It is the oldest building in Rome. Two cells
remain. They are only six and one-half feet in height. There is
a circular opening at the top through which prisoners were let
down. At last there was a form of trial. Paul made a defense,
but it made no impression on the magistrate and jury before whom
he was tried. He was sent back to prison.

During Paul's second imprisonment, he had very few friends
to cheer him. They feared to go near him lest they should be
compelled to share his fate. There was one whom he longed to
see: it was Timothy, then in Asia. To him he wrote the last of
the "Seven Epistles of the Captivity." It was the last letter he
ever wrote. It is tender and beautiful. He begs Timothy, "Do
thy diligence to come unto me shortly. " If he waited, it might
be too late. He said, "Only Luke is with me"— the beloved and
ever faithful physician and friend. Then he added, "Take Mark,
and bring him with thee"— that same John Mark who had once
left him, but to whom he would now show the kindest of feelings.

Then there was a request which seems strange as a part of
the Bible, but is an interesting hint of Paul's condition: "The

LIFE OF ST. PAUL tOR THE YOUNG. 943

•cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, bring with thee, but es-
pecially the parchments." We think of "the cloak" as his only-
one, a large, rough, sleeveless traveling garment which had done
much service; and as one of his only two possessions. In his
flight he had been compelled to leave it at Troas. Settled in his
prison-home for life he wanted it again. He knew by experience
what winter meant in that gloomy, cold cell, with its rocky floor—
a great contrast to the palace above him. Sixty-eight years of
age, his body no longer had the glow of youth; it was weakened
by age and suffering. What memories he had of that cloak. It
is very likely he had woven it with his own hands from the black
goats' hair of his own Cilicia; and that it had been his companion
in circumstances of joy and sorrow — water-soaked in the Taurus
mountain torrents and in the sea of Adria; covered with dust on
Asiatic plains and Italian roads; stained with the soil of travel; his
shelter when sleeping under the starry, open sky, and infolding his
bruised body in the sleepless inner prison in Philippi.

Paul wanted not only "the cloak," but even more "the parch-
ments." These were rolls of skin on which portions of the scrip-
ture were written— a very small part of the Bible as we have it,
but very precious to him. They had been his companions even
more than the cloak. Perhaps he had used them with his father
and mother and sister in Tarsus; and studied them in the school of
Gamaliel; and in his lodging-places, glancing at them as he paused
a few moments in the weaving of goats' hair; and carrying them
from house to house explaining them to all who would listen. How
he missed them in the long, dark days and the darker evenings in
his dungeon! What a joy and encouragement if he could have a
portion of Isaiah, or some of the Psalms of David written in
afiliction!

It A'las in this letter that Paul summed up his life in the
memorable words: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness." The last words which we have of
Paul are the benediction which closes his letter to Timothy: "The
Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen."

At last Paul was taken from his dungeon to the place of trial
before magistate and jury. We know but little of it. Tradition

944 IMPBOVEMENl ERA.

helped by imagination gives us a picture of unjust judgment, and
sentence of death by beheading. Guarded by centurion and sol-
diers he was led out of the Rome he had longed to enter as an
apostle, which he still was. Passing through the gate now
called by his name he was led three miles, followed by a rabble
whose morbid curiosity and hatred of Christians made them de-
light in horrible tragedy. The fatal spot was reached, the com-
mand was given to the executioner, the prisoner kneeled, the
sword flashed, and the sacred head rolled in the dust. Paul had
finished his course. We may think of him as repeating, before
the fatal stroke, the words he had heard from Stephen as he wit-
nessed his martyrdom, ''Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." In no
mere vision, of which he wrote to Corinthian Christians, but in a
glorious reality, he was "caught up into paradise," to meet him
who revealed himself near Damascus as the persecuted Jesus of
Nazareth. From that hour until his death, the changed persecutor
gloried in the title by which he called himself, ' 'Paul, an Apostle
of Jesus Christ,"

So the tyrant emperor of Rome had his pretended revenge,
and the apostle entered on his glorious reward.

Nero and Paul — history furnishes no other two names so con-
trasted as these. Living at the same time and in the same city,
that contrast appears all the greater. It is hard to picture the
unlikeness in their characters; the gross wickedness of the one,
and the beautiful goodness of the other.

Before Nero was thirty years of age he was guilty of almost
every sin against which Paul had preached, without any of the
virtues which he exhorted men to practice. He was not only a
robber, liar, drunkard and glutton, but most of all a murderer
again and again. He poisoned the noble boy who had a right to
the throne, whose sister he married, treated her brutally, and or-
dered her to be slain. He killed his second wife by a kick. He
planned to take the life of his mother by loosing the rafters of her
bed-chamber, that they might fall upon her. Failing in this, he
planned a yacht in which she was to sail, so that it would fall to
pieces and she be drowned. This failing, he ordered a servant to
end her life with a dagger. We have already noticed his treat-

Llt'E OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 945

ment of Christians. All this was before he was twenty-five years old.

Nero is remembered as frivolous, selfish, always seeking his
own pleasure, vain, ungrateful, cruel and vicious, ever increasing
in wickedness as he grew older, until he became the worst of men.
He disgraced the names of emperor, friend, son, husband,
Roman, and even of man, in the sura of all his villainies. For him
no vice was too mean; no crime too great. His name is but an-
other for dishonor and shame. It became a cursed one in Rome.
His reign of terror came to a sudden end. Learning of revolt
against his rule at home and rebellion in other provinces, he
planned yet other schemes of butchery, poison, fire and destruc-
tion by wild beasts. But he soon learned of the bitterness of
feeling against him, and that his power was gone. Every officer
in whom he had trusted turned against him: his palace was de-
serted by guards on whom he depended for protection: he was
robbed of golden treasure by his attendants: he was terrified by
dreams and haunted by the conscience he had vainly tried to stifle.
He sought a hiding place. Fleeing barefooted and in disguise he
heard the soldiers, who had obeyed his bidding, cursing his name.
Learning that the sena^te had determined to punish him with some-
thing of the cruelty he had shown to others, he placed to his
throat a dagger which was driven by a slave. Such was the tragic
end of a life of tragedy.

The life of Nero is a dark background for that of Paul, who,
having noble traits in youth, had nobler in Christian manhood. He
was ambitious, but his early mistaken ambition was at last sanc-
tified. His mistaken zeal in the persecution of Christians he great-
ly mourned, and became yet more zealous in the Christian cause.
Most unlike Nero, the longer he lived, the more he illustrated the
royal law of love to God and love to man.

In this volume the attempt is made to show something of
what manner of man Paul was, and what manner of life he lived.
We have seen something of his labors, constant and earnest, as a
teacher, a pastor and an apostle; in the synagogue, on the street,
from house to house, among all classes of people — the rude and
the refined, the ignorant and the learned, Jewish believers in the
true God, and Pagan idolators. Meanwhile in poverty he labored
with his ov/n hands for his daily bread; and this in weakness and

946 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

weariness, and painfulness; from cold, hunger, thirst and illness.
But this was not the full measure of his sufferings of body
and mind. Stoned at Lystra; three times beaten with Roman rods
at Philippi and elsewhere; five times scourged with Jewish thongs;
hunted and haunted by a Greek mob at Ephesus; seized by furious
Jews at Corinth and Jerusalem; fleeing from city to city in the
darkness; a toiling pilgrim on cold, rugged mountains and hot,
dusty plains; crossing swollen rivers and water-courses; ship-
wrecked again and yet again; tossed a day and a night on a stormy
sea; in prison for years, at Philippi, Jerusalem, Csesarea and Rome;
in danger from mountain brigands and other lawless banditti in the
wilderness, and from pitiless magistrates in the city; plotted
against by Jews and Pagans; falsely accused of outrageous crimes
and called a pestilent fellow; numbered with malefactors and pun-
ished as such; his person slandered, his teachings opposed; "in
deaths oft," "killed all the day long," despairing of life until at
last it ended in an ignominious death— such were some of the trials
which Paul endured.

But there were yet others for his unselfish and loving soul.
He had a heart full of tender sympathy for others. He was anx-
ious for all the churches he established. Those at Corinth and
Galatia were especially a sacred burden to him. He was saddened
by professed Christians without the Christian spirit, some of whom
were unfriendly to him. He had a keen sense of insult and in-
justice when treated with contempt and scorn by those whom he
sought to bless. ''Without were fightings, within were fears."
Nervous and sensitive, no wonder that sometimes he burned with
indignation; and that in fear and trembling and tears he was cast
down; and at times life itself seemed a burden.

But this alone would be a very imperfect view of Paul. He
himself would not have us dwell on these things. He tells us he
was "not in despair," "not forsaken," "not destroyed." Though
his outward man seemed to be perishing from day to day, the in-
ward was renewed with ever-increasing power. His heaviest
afflictions were lightness itself compared with his future glory.
His inner vision was so much keener than his outward, that he seemed
not even to "look at the things which are seen" by mortal eyes.
What elements we find combining in the making of his char-

^ LIFE OF ST. PAUL FOR THE YOUNG. 947

acter — courage with courtesy; dignity with humility; strong passions
with self-control; love for his fellow-men with supreme affection for
his God; as the teacher of the greatest minds, and the simplest; as
the greatest of preachers, reformers, and missionaries; as the chief
inspirer of Christian labor; as the wisest of human writers; great-
est of all the saints, though judging himself the least of all.

We have caught many views of his figure, always pointing
upward to the apostle's God. Protected by him, he confronted
mobs of human demons. He boldly yet justly passed judgment
on his guilty judges, who might fittingly have changed places with
him, as they did in the mind of the Infinite Judge of all.
Never quailing before kings, they tremble before him. He was
evermore royal because loyal to the King of kings, to whose
throne he was bound with a golden chain more closely than to his
Roman guard by one of shame. It reached down to his dungeon,
which became the cage of a singing bird.

The history of the Church of Christ on earth cannot be writ-
ten without the name of Paul; nor can that of the world. In many
ways while both shall last, it will be kept in everlasting remem-
brance. Many a Christian home contains its Paul. After two
thousand years, cities and towns in countries of which Paul never
knew keep his name ever fresh. No sooner did Africa begin to
stretch forth her hands unto God than one of its streams was con-
secrated by his name, as are islands in the Indian and Pacific
oceans. Damascus once closed all her gates against him, but now
welcomes the traveler through the gate of St. Paul. Antioch and
Rome thus cherished his memory. By that name many an humble
parish church and grand cathedral are known. Little did Nero
dream of "St. Paul's in Rome." In all these the words of Paul
echo every Sabbath for tens of thousands of worshipers.

Paul wears the crown which he said was laid up for him, and
points to others awaiting those who like him follow the Lord.

' 'He who can part from country and from kin ,
And scorn delights, and tread the thorny way,

A heavenly crown through toil and pain to win, —
He who * * * *■

Fights the good fight, and when at last the day
Of fiery trials comes, can nobly fall, —

Such were a saint, or more, and such the holy Paul."
(the end.)

THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS.

BY JOSEPHINE SPENCER.

' 'You can make no mistake marrying Carol Drew, dear. He
is a man who will go as straight to the mark as the ships through
Golden Gate to the sea. He has hardly begun yet, and already
people say he is one of the cleverest brokers in San Francisco.
Boyd says he will make as much money turning deals in one day
as John Stetson could in a month. John is a dear fellow, of
course; honest and all that — and awfully in love with you. But
he thinks too much of the other man's side, and that means, usu-
ally, falling between two stools. It wouldn't take me a minute to
make my choice, if the case were mine. There's another view be-
sides the business one, too; think of the privilege of having the
special right to gaze into Carol Drew's glorious brown eyes for
life!"

Ellis Landon's pretty chaperone heaved a deep sigh, and
leaned back, luxuriously sipping her tiny glass of claret with true
San Franciscan enjoyment.

About them soft-shod waiters glided, carrying trays of
tempting viands to the small tables on either side, spread with
their snow-white linen and rich services. An orchestra on the
balcony overlooking the cafe played a tingling quickstep, and
mingled with it the hum of many voices, soft feminine tones with
a deeper masculine complement, mingled in a delicious murmur.

Across from them sat a party of four, the two women in
evening dress, with heavily jeweled white hands playing daintily
with the tempting spread, the men in half-dress suits and carrying
the expansive air that spoke of affluence. Ellis recognized in the
taller of the two women their apartment neighbor at her own

' THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS. 949

hotel, a handsome, richly dressed brunette, whose interest in her
husband's friend, the blonde, good-looking fellow opposite — a full
five years younger than herself, had been noticed by everyone, it
was whispered, but the husband himself.

Bits of the quartette's talk came to Ellis across the aisle, a
veritable keynote of the scene and its atmosphere.

''This ta^k of living in this world to get ready to live in
another may go with those who want it," said the blonde woman.
' 'My theory is, get all you can out of this, and when the next
one comes, if it comes to any of us, get all you can out of that,
too. People can't be doing two things at once, and if one goes
around with his ,head in one sphere and his feet in another, he's
going to trip here, and bump his head in the other place too.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." f

"Pleasure — to my soul, " responded the pretty brunette, "is
what food is to my body. Without it, I should go into a decline.
To put it in a nutshell, I'm never good but when I'm happy."

' *I bear witness to her veracity, ' ' laughed her companion, a
plump young widow of the lucern kind, with whom the other was
inseparable. "She never goes to church that she is not vixenish
for three days at least; and as for charity work — it turns her into
an old-time Fury — more to be dreaded than — Hades."

Before their laugh ended, Ellis' companion leaned forward
with a contented smile. "Here's Boyd at last, " she said, "and
he's bringing Carol Drew. Thank heaven we won't have to wait
for him. You've just saved yjourself by a thread, Boyd; the waiter
was just here to say our order was ready, and rather than have it
spoiled by you unreliable men, I was about to have it served with-
out you. ' '

The two men took the vacant chairs, and Boyd Lees signalled to
the black-clothed personage at the rear. "Serve it up, Gibson," he
said; and then to his wife — "I'm going to prove to you now what
a saving of time and other things it means for us business men to
have you come down town and order dinner for us to a dot, instead
of our doing the gallant for you. In the half hour we'd have wasted
here, Carol has turned a $5,000 deal. Do a little sum in arith-
metic now and see what could be done in all the time I've wasted
in restaurants while the cook fussed with the clams. Here, Carol,

950 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

don't you go talking so loud to Miss Landon with your eyes.
You'll have the proprietor out here if you go on creating a dis-
turbance like that. Sis, you're the chaperone -make him keep
the peace, at least in public."

The low bubble of their gay laughter mingled with the hum
about them. The music clamored gently above the murmur of
voices.. Outside on the pavement fell the beat of numberless foot-
steps. Cable cars clanged and buzzed in the street; lights began
to flash out, and the throngs in the thousand restaurants and the
narrow streets grew thicker. With the numberless homes, palatial
hotels and nondescript boarding houses in the hill-city, a third of
its population dined on the boulevards. The spirit of unrest, of
change, of pleasure-seeking — an insistent, insidious fever, pulsed
in the restless veins of the people, driving them forth in search of
any form of amusement. That aim — the key-note of life in the
great, pulsing arteries of the cities had turned all things to itself,
only one rival theme matching and melting into its chord — gain:
and both were in evidence in this great, hurrying, restless throng
of the evening.

The Boyds had made up a theatre party for the night, and
planned the down town dinner that the men might not traverse the
distance back to the hotel between the late business hour and the
play. The meal ot many courses was finished in just time to make
the run to the theatre in Carol Drew's auto, which had awaited
them outside, landing them there a moment before the first cur-
tain.

The entertainment was in part with the great, primal, moving
impulse of the place — vaudeville — that pot-pourri of changing,
fanciful, trifling bits of play— brief enough, light enough to suit
the whimsical impulses of the pleasure-sated throngs. Ellis, al-
most fresh from her quiet, inland home--h3r present visit with
her California friends, the first away from her sedate birthplace —
felt as if in amaze. Not that it was unpleasant; two months had
already put enough of the San Franciscan spell upon her to make
it all entrancing; and besides this, it was as Betty Lees had said,
''something of a privilege (though a dangerous one withal,) that of
gazing into Carol Drew's glorious brown eyes."

It affected Ellis something like the tiny sip of champagne she-

THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS. 951

had taken at the cafe, "just," as Boyd Lees had urged, "to show
that she had no vendetta against the crowd." It seemed to mingle
with the glamor of the bright throngs, the moving, whirling tide
of human life about her; and while at first it had all appealed to
her with a sense of repellance — tonight, under the glittering spell
of it all she owned that it would not be unpleasant to be one of
that bright, surface-happy throng — keyed to a high pitch of the
pleasure of life — life that knows only the shell tints — never the
neutrals of existence.

Across from them in a stall was John Stetson, with his mother
and the two young Russian girls whom Mrs. Stetson had mothered
after the shipwreck that threw them penniless upon the dangerous
coast of San Franciscan social life.

Neither of them pretty enough to be attractive, it was a
standing joke with mischievous Betty Lees, this devotion of
John Stetson's to his mother's charity fads. "Gives the finishing
touch to the man," she laughed; "goody all through, like the
sticks of lickorice I used to feed on, and that left me a prey to
nausea for days to come. As if any sanely natural man would
tie himself to his mother and a pair of girls that look like guinea
hens. Give them a taste of pleasure, indeed! What one gains in
robbing Peter to pay Paul I never fathomed. Spoils his own life
to pamper theirs — as I see it."

Ellis' home atmosphere had been too diflferent from Betty's
to make her see this or other things from Betty's standpoint; and
she could not but compare doubtfully the purposeful face, the firm
pose of John Stetson's well-shaped head, and the character for
which they stood, with the contrasting faces about her. They had
a significance for her that Betty in her spoiled life could never
sense; and it was this which kept Ellis hovering in the miasma of
indecision which her friend was seeking to influence to worldly
direction.

But Carol Drew really needed not the aid of his devoted ally.
Strong and forceful in his own way, he possessed, too, that added
charm which lies in symmetry of feature, and personal magnetism
— and all these made him especially masterful.

The pleasant sense of success, of worldly comradery, was one
with it, and made an association that caused that little sense of

952 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

exhilaration which one could not help but find at least endurable.

The sense of it was with Ellis strongly after the theater
when she went to her room at the hotel; and she blushed con-
sciously at Boyd Lees' characteristic jest as he and Betty said good-
night from their room door across the lobby.

'I'm making a new bet on the present innings, and my bids
all draw on Drew," he laughed. "Carol always was a nipper at
jumping claims!"

Boyd Leas joked as he breathed or fed. To exist in his pres-
ence without scars was an unproved possibility; and Ellis, like
others, had to submit with more or less rebellion. Carol had left
them at the hotel door to drive his auto to the garage,
and Ellis was glad to put out her light and sit down quietly to
think. Clothed in her pretty neglige of pale blue crepe, she
nestled down among her window cushions and looked out. It was
fascinating to watch the gl'eat city in its after dark dress, with
the lights from gaudy electric signs glittering in the night, and
the streets filled with pleasure-loving throngs. The theatres were
all out, and thousands surged on the sidewalks and crammed the
cars and busses; amid them all moved hacks and automobiles,
glimpses of fair faces, rich wraps, and snowy shirt-fronts starred
with diamond studs flashing from their open sides, as parties of the
favored classes rolled from scenes of pleasure to various abodes.
Glitter and pomp and show — pleasure, scheming and gain! It was
all there in that bright scene outside.

But how black the sky was! Ellis looked out above the moving
throngs with something like awe. Dark as a tent of ebony, the
heavens hung low over the glittering city. Not a star shone in
its space; only a fathomless abyss brooding threateningly above
the chaos of souls and scenes.

A strange sense of restlessness stole over Ellis. The happy,
dreamful mood of an hour back suddenly passed. She felt a
strange need for protection. Carol— if he were here, how tend-
erly his eyes would soften at her mood. And yet, was there in
them that same sense of assured strength that shone from John
Stetson's steady gray eyes, when she had questioned them? In
Stetson's presence she had always felt tangibly this sense; some-
thing more than the effervescent thrill of Carol's; not so danger-

* THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS. 953

ously sweet, perhaps, but an influence of safety that was splendid.
Handsome? Not at all; just big and strong-featured and strong-
limbed. She had not seen as much of him as Carol, lately, though
she had known him first; with Carol at the same hotel, it was, of
course, natural that she should have come to feel his influence
more.

Could Betty Lees possibly have had something of this on her
mind when she chose "The Beeches" for an abiding place during
their stay? She certainly had made no pretense at disguising her
schemes to keep Carol and herself together. Clever little Betty!
How would it all end? There — she was at it again — trying to
solve the troublesome problem that seemed filled with doubts, and
which she knew sometime would have to be settled. But not to-
night. She would rest her mind from it all before trying to sleep.

The lights of the city bleared and faded the great ebony hole
above closed down like a giant barrell. Ellis' head drooped
against the wide window sill.

* * ♦ *

What a nightmare ! It seemed real even now, with her eyes
wide open. Why her clothes were still on — she had not been in
bed at all! Had gone to sleep there on the window sill, and
fallen here on the floor like a child tumbling out of bed! No
wonder she had had nightmare — but would she never waken? That
horrible noise and sense of shaking —

She sprang to her feet and ran to the door with a scream.
No dream — that pandemonium of sounds, crashes, shrieks, prayers
outside in the streets, and all about her through the house! The
door, fastened tight in the wrench that had twisted it, resisted her
effort. She shook the knob and called for help — but her voice
could not pierce the pandemonium outside.

The Lees — Carol — surely they would think of her— there
alone in her room, alone in the city! Yes, there they were now,
beating the door in from the outside. She could hear the blows
against the shattered lock, strong and insistent, while the floor
and walls rocked around her.

"John— Mr. Stetson."

"Miss Landon, thank heaven you are safe! I came as quickly
as I could; but it seemed ages getting here through the crowd.

954 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Don't wait an instant — the building is literally tottering; it's only
a question of moments when the crash will come."

Down the rocking stairs, through the bedlam of shrieking
people and sliding trunks, out into the streets with their thousands
of human beings crazed almost beyond semblance of hum-anity — they
went. At the corner the sound of a familiar voice amid the babel
drew Ellis' eyes to the curbstone. Over a prostrate body knelt
her neighbor whom she had seen last at the cafe last night, her
bloom, and blasphemy at life's purpose all gone — her voice now
in agony of prayer, "0 God! have mercy on my sinful soul. My
husband! My husband!" On, with the great seething, human
river, toward places of safety they went — Ellis' only sense that
of the absolute security of John Stetson's arm guiding and sus-
taining her through all, and his steady voice soothing her, and
many other stricken souls whose path touched theirs in that crazed
flight.

Yet under this blissful sense of trust throbbed a dull, insist-
ent ache — the dread of hopeless, irreparable loss. Carol and the
Lees! Surely some terrible thing had happened or they would
have come to her; Carol, above all, she could not doubt, after last
night.

"Yoi are so much a part of my life, now, Ellis, that it has
grown to mean that I do not really live except when I am with
you."

With him? Why perhaps she would never see him again — and
then —

•She looked about desolately at the ghastly faces surging near
her into the Park. Some of these were unrecognizable, doubtless,
in their fear and suffering, even to friends. To her, a stranger,
all were strange. John Stetson had vanished after a brief hand
clasp, and she was alone.

"Ellis!" Betty's arms were tight about her, and Betty's
tear- wet cheek close against her own. "Oh, Ellis, I thought you
were lost, and I felt like a murderess. You see, it all came so
quickly we hadn't time to think of anything, but to flee from that
horrible, rocking house. When I began to realize anything but
the deadly fear, my first thought was of you; but Boyd said,
surely Carol would take care of you, and we came to the Park.

THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS. 955

On the way we saw Carol alone in an auto that was just being
pressed into service by the soldiers, and then in a moment he was
out of sight. Since then I've been in torment. Boyd only stayed
here long enough to see us safely placed, then hurried back to find
you. Oh, Ellis, pray heaven I'll see him again, as I see you, now,
safe and whole. ' '

Poor, pretty, pleasure-spoiled Betty! There was nothing of
endurance in her untrained will, and it was Ellis who had to stand
as comforter.

There was test of stamina in those hours. Women to whom
life had meant the killing of time, who had been tried by the
absence of novel dainties at their table in luxurious hotels, scram-
bled hungrily with destitute hordes about them for bread, and
scraped eagerly together a few warm ashes in the open air to
warm delicate, idle hands. And, like an atmosphere about all,
hung the shadow of fear for loved ones back in that seething in-
ferno of peril.

Boyd Lees did not appear till nightfall. Impressed with
thousands into the terrible struggle for the salvation of the city
he had not been permitted to reach the hotel, and could only guess
fearfully at Ellis' fate. He had seen John Stetson working like a
veritable Titan in the midst of the seething fire district, making
himself a marked figure in scenes of the thickest tumult and toil.
Not till the fight for the doomed city had achieved its partial,
pitiful victory did they see him. He came from both days and
nights of incessant toil to snatch a brief rest in the Park, amid
the impassible babel of breeds and creeds and cultures huddled
there, many of • whose individual souls had been cheered by his
voice or rescued by his hand.

Hero though he had been, his was far from an heroic appear-
ance. Poor John! Clothes white with ashes and brick dust; face
and hands black with cinder and smoke; eyes red with flame and
scorch of dynamite — and perhaps with tears; he was so far from
woman's accepted ideal of the hero that Betty Lees shrank from
him with a little scream, when he stood suddenly before them.

It was evening, and the only light came from the lessening
glow of the burning city and their own campfire, at which many
were warming in the chill night.

956 IMPROVEMENT ER4.

John Stetson stretched himself luxuriously on the grass at
Ellis' side, where she sat in the shade of an eucalyptus.

' '1 know the meaning of beds of down and rose leaves, right
now," he smiled. "The Sybarites, and other spoiled pets of luxury
are not to be counted in this."

' 'You men ought all to have couches and chariots and thrones
of laurel," piped Betty from her stool. "Boyd has worked harder
in three days than in all the rest of his life. I've done my best to
keep him here, but I can't. He knows a man daren't show himself
in the streets without being haled into slavery; yet off he goes
just the same as if it were to the office to sell stocks. He has
been gone thirty hours this time; and for all I know, he may be
burned up or buried under tons of houses."

"Guess again, little- one." Boyd caught Betty from her stool,
and kissed her as she hung high in the air. ' 'Got room for another
refugee?" he asked Ellis, as he replaced Betty, and sat down at
her side on the grass. He glanced over Ellis' shoulder; but Ellis
knew, without turning, who was there. Only one presence could
thrill her like that — without sight or touch.

Carol came forward and shook hands with all, unostenta-
tiously, receiving Betty's rather emotional greeting and congratu-
lations with a quiet smile.

"Nice of you to worry about me," he laughed; "but it's been
quite needless, I assure you. I've been in great luck, consid-
ering. ' '

"Might have been in a bandbox, by the looks of you, " grunted
Boyd.

"Tnat about tells it, figuratively," laughed Carol.

"Where on earth have you been?" exclaimed Betty, gazing
at his immaculate clothes incredulously.

"In the lap of luxury and fortune, and probably fame; in
other words, I've spent my nights on a double-spring mattress in a
tent furnished with all the conveniences of life, food included, and
my days wooing the graces of the money god— my ever-potent
and revered deity."

' 'You are romancing to beat the— Baron Munchausen, " chirped
Betty conclusively.

"Not a bit. We San Franciscans have got the knack of

THROUGH DOUBT AND DEBRIS. 957

turning romance into fact. You see, it didn't take centuries of
meditation to convince me there were heaps of money to be piled
up out of this wreck; pictures and press articles are sure to be in
fabulous demand by that horrified and curious portion of the world
not quaking with us on the spot. I managed to get a camera, a
fountain pen and a writing pad, and in the last three days I have
piled up $5000 worth of magazine literature; and more than all, —
I've got it booked. "

He locked around rather expectantly, but no one spoke.

*'How did you dodge the military crew?" asked Boyd Lees,
finally. "Every able-bodied man I've seen down town has been
up to his neck in bricks or bread-dough. How you could keep
clean as that outside of a coflftn is the last great mystery. The
only recreation offered me was the kind you get out of the wrong
end of a shotgun. "

"They tried to impress me once," laughed Drew; "but I di-
rected the guard's attention to a thief crawling out of a window
opposite; and while he held up him, I jumped into an empty
barrel in an alley way, and stayed there till the guard crossed the
street for his man. Then I escaped. Since then I have been
going about disguised."

"Disguised?"

"Yes, as a red-cross nurse. You should have seen me with
my camera done up as a case of medicine, promenading into the
very heart of things, and getting my films packed with all the
choice horrors, "while newspapermen and all the special magazine
agents buzzed about like hornets, kneading dough or digging
brick. It will make a good story, I'm going to put it into a
book."

Ellis looked across at John Stetson. He had moved back
from the rest, and lay stretched out — a gaunt, weary figure in the
dim light. Something rose in Ellis' throat and choked her. That
rough face, seared with the marks of struggle that bad meant
sympathy and help for the stricken city in her hour of crying need,
was the first to look upon her in her own moment of waking
nightmare; his hands, stained beyond all hint of whiteness or
even cleanliness, had helped her from peril in her own time of
need. And Carol —

958 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

He had come close to her side in the shadow, and was speak-
ing in the low, tender voice which had so often moved her:

"I have not been able to see you, Ellis, but I knew from Boyd
you were safe, and through it all, from the first terrible moment,
I have thought of you constantly."

Ellis' hand shuddered from Carol's secret, warm clasp. "You
must think of me no more, " she said steadily.

Sonie mesmeric force drew her eyes to John Stetson's. They
were weary and dim with scorch and tears, yet in the sudden light
that flashed into them as her glance answered his, she saw that he
knew.
Salt Lake City, Utah.

WHERE DOES MISSIONARY WORK CEASE?
BY ELDER FRANCIS M. SHAFER.

As a missionary in the field, I well remember some special in-
structions given at a priesthood meeting held at the headquarters
in the Northern States Mission, a copy of which was sent to each
elder laboring in the field. In these instructions an especial ef-
fort was made to impress the home-going elders with the great
importance of keeping the missionary spirit burning within their
hearts, after reaching their mountain home. Each one was cau-
tioned that this was the dangerous period of his life, a time when
temporal cares would rise around them, diverting their attention
and interest from the spiritual and the gospel of Christ, causing
them to be led into careless, and indifferent ways. The instruc-
tions referred to were taken from a discourse delivered by one of
the twelve apostles, who seemed filled with the idea of the great
importance attached to this period in the life of our returned
elders. He admonished them to exercise all the faith and strength
they possessed, thus guarding against pitfalls and obstacles that
beset the feet of an active servant of the Master.

WHERhJ DOES MISSIONARY WORK CEASE? 959

The writer did not sense the full importance of these instruc-
tions, while laboring in the mission field, but since returning to my
mountain home, I have had time to feel, and— to some extent— to
see the value of such instructions. I know now, that one of the
most trying periods of my life has been experienced during the
past two years, or since my release from actual mission service in
the Lord's vineyard; that trials, vexations, and some reverses, will
be the lot of most returned elders, and that we indeed need to
exercise implicit faith and confidence in the gospel, and also in his
servants, and that we must continue our labors, if we would re-
tain the true spirit of the gospel.

There are opportunities to do gooi in Zion, and work can be
found for every willing soul. There are openings in every organi-
zation connected with the Church where our returned elders may
continue in the glorious gospel work. Men should not wait for
place or position. There are room and opportunities in the ranks.
Get in and work, and wait for no invitation. Be a pusher, not a
iagger. Show that you can be led and taught, as well as you can
teach and lead; that you can be a good follower as well as a good
leader; a student as well as a teacher. Do not wait for place; get
into the Sunday School, Mutual, and Priesthood ranks. Thus, our
mission labors will continue as long as life lasts. , All are, expected
to give their aid, to help along this great work. The gospel of Jesus
■Christ will grow and increase in the earth, even if some of the serv-
ants of the Lord slumber. The marriage feast will be prepared, and
they who fail to keep their lamps filled and trimmed, will be re-
fused entrance when the cry comes, ''Behold, the Bridegroom
Cometh, go ye out to meet him." Will it be you or me who must
remain on the outside? That question certainly concerns each one
of us.

Moab, Utah.

lu A DEPARTING MISSIONARY.

BY ELDER THOMAS HULL.

Among the very last words spoken by our Lord before he
ascended from the earth was a commission to his apostles as fol-
lows: "Go ye into all the world and preach , the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and
he that believeth not shall be damned." This same command is
given to the servants of the Lord in these last days. They go to-
day, not by virtue of the command of Jesus to the apostles in
Jerusalem, but in obedience to the Lord's command given through
the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Whenever a gospel dispensation is upon the earth, it appears
to be of the utmost importance that its message shall be declared
unto the people; indeed, that is the object of a gospel dispensation
— the object of the organization of a church — that the word of
life may be delivered unto the people, and God's children called
to repentance, and the path to eternal life pointed out to them.

This is done, that those who will may be saved, while those
who believe not, or, believing, heed not, may be left without ex-
cuse; in other words, that every man may be given equal oppor-
tunity to receive and obey the truth and enter into the joy of the
Lord.

The elders who go forth today go bearin'g the message of sal-
vation, and are commanded to ' 'say nothing but repentance unto
this generation,"* They are forbidden to enter into contention,
but commanded to preach the truth in plainness in the name of
our Lord.f

* Doctrine and Covenants sec. 6:9; sec. 11: 9.
t Doctrine and Covenants sec. 18; 20, 21.

TO A DEPARTI^G MISSIONARY. 961

They are commanded, too, to preserve themselves pure and
spotless from the sins of the world, that men, seeing their good
works, may glorify their Father in heaven, and that they may not
bring shame upon the name or cause of Christ Jesus.

Our young brother here, when he is set apart for his mission,,
will be admonished to avoid the evils of the world, and I warn him
now to enter not into unholy places. Go to no place where you
cannot ask the companionship of the Holy Spirit. Go an v where
and everywhere that duty calls, or the servants of the Lord may
send you, because, under those conditions, you may ever claim the
protection of the Lord; but seek not to gratify idle curiosity nor
to gaze upon iniquity; and let your prayer ever be, "0 Lord, keep
mine eyes from beholding iniquity." Be diligent in the perform-
ance of every labor required of you, and the Lord will magnify
you. He has said to those who go forth in this day,

* 'Therefore, 0 ye that embark in ther service of God, see that
ye serve him with albyour heart, might, mind and strength,that ye
may stand blameless before God at the last day."*

So that, it will be seen, a great responsibility rests upon the
elders. They go not out to see the world, to seek pleasure, to
enjoy a change of scene, but they "embark in the service of God;"
and if they do not serve him with all their hearts, might, mind
and strength, they will be deemed blameworthy by the Lord at
the last day. But, on the other hand, if they are true, and faith-
ful and diligent, they shall have eternal joy; for the Lord has
said, "And if it so be that you shall labor all your days in crying
repentance unto this people, and bring save it be one soul unto
me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom ofmy

Father, "t

Now go! my beloved brother, and serve the Lord. Be fear-
less in the declaration of the gospel. Be gentle and kind, respect-
ing every man's faith, but making no concession concerning the
word of God. for the Lord has spoken. He has appeared unto man-
in our day and introduced his Son — the Savior of the world. He
has called the Prophet Joseph and revealed to him the plan of sal-

* Doctrine and Covenants sec. 4: 2.
t Doctrine and Covenants sec. 18: 15.

962 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

vation. So while you antagonize no man, hate no man, but love
them all, you must still declare the day of God's judgment at
hand, and call on all men everywhere to repent.

Remember that wherever your duty may call you, whatever
you may be called upon to pass through, the prayers of the Saints
in every home, in every ward, ascend each day to the throne of
God that you may be preserved and blessed to accomplish your mis-
sion. And f 01 get not that here, in this ward, there is a band of
brethren and sisters, and a father and mother, who are especially
interested in you because you go out from our ward, and our
hearts go out with you, our hopes are built upon you. We look
to you to bear the good name of our ward in honor before the
Church. We shall be looking for your happy return, bringing
with you an honorable release and record of faithfulness and pu-
rity, of devotion to duty, of increase of faith, of the favor of God
accompanying you in your labors; which, while filling you with hu-
mility, shall swell our hearts with pride because of your success.
Let this thought be ever in your mind, dear boy, and it shall be a
shield of protection when temptations surround you, and shall enable
you to face fearlessly every difficulty and trial.

And now, God bless you, dear brother. Fill you with his
power. Guide you by his Spirit. Take you in safety to your des-
tination. Magnify you while performing your mission to the
honor and glory of his name; and bring you safely home again wiih
a clean and noble record, praising the Lord.

Salt Lake City, Utah.

MISSING LINKS.
BY ELDER WILLIAM HALLS.

In allusions to the Darwinian theory of evolution, we have seen
the expression, "The Missing Link." A little reflection may con-
vince us that Darwinism is not the only system that has a missing
link. The alchemists who sought to get gold by transmutation of
the base metals encountered a missing link. The machinists

MISSING LINKS. 963

who souffiit to invent, or discover, perpetual motion encountered a
missing link. The philosopher who sought a "first cause" also en-
countered a missing link.

These examples show that when we search for that which does
not exist, or draw conclusions from false premises, seeking to
verify that which is not true, there is a missing link in our logica
chain.

What of our school system? Is the hope that education
would lessen crime realized? What is the product? "By their
fruits ye may know them;" are the best educated the most humane
and the least criminal? Let the senseless, inhuman custom of
hazing, the brutal sport of football, the barbarous college yell, and
the criminal courts, answer. Who are guilty of graft, bribery,
forgery, defalcation and counterfeiting? Who are most promi-
nent in social scandal, divorce and "race suicide?" Who are the
agitators and prime movers in industrial and political frctions,
jeopardizing life and property, leading to assassination? Is there
a lack of religious and moral training? Is it possible there is a
missing link in our pedagogical chain?

Instinctively, we turn to the Christian church to supply this
lack of religious and moral training to supplement the schools.
This reminds us of a man who was asked, "Mr. W., why don't you
join the church?" He answered by the question, "Which church?"
Being so many different sects, and as many different creeds, he was
unable to decide which church to join, and in the uncertainty as to
which, if any, is right he stood aloof. Did Christ command his
disciples to be one, saying, "if ye are not one ye are not mine" ?
Are the so-called Christian sects one? If not, why? Is the bond
that should unite all the followers of Christ in love and fellowship
with "one faith, one Lord, and one baptism," broken? Is it con-
ceivable that the great theological chain of modern Christendom
has a missing link?

In our industrial system,the irrepressible conflict between cap-
ital and labor, the frequent strikes, causing demoralization, dissi-
pation, loss of time, and wages, destruction of property, and often
rioting and bloodshed, may indicate that the paternal chain that
should bind employer and employee in a common brotherhood and
communal interest, has a missing link.

964 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

To illustrate the condition of the political world: Imagine
two neighbors living on adjoining estates, each having a very nu-
merous family. Instead of using all their income for their educa-
tional and material advancement, a great part is spent for muni-
tions of war, and in fortifying their premises. A number of the
most active, able-bodied, of each family,* instead of assisting to de-
velop the resources of the estate, spend all their time maneuvering
in military tactics, to prepare to attack their neighbor, or to de-
fend themselves against an attack from him. The head of each
family, with a few of the most intelligent members, manage the
estates, make all the rules, dictate all affairs, and handle the rev-
enue; but instead of sharing the proceeds equally with the rest,
they take most of it for themselves, living in luxury and extrava-
geance, while those who do the work receive a bare subsistence.
Instead of union, love, and domestic peace, they have division,
hatred and strife, every member of both families being about
equally dissatisfied with the existing regime. Would anyone pre-
sume to say these families are highly civilized Christians, observing
the golden rule? Yet are they not typical of the most civilized
Christian nations? Is there anything wrong in our national and
international relations? Has the world's great governmental chain
a missing link?

If this is the condition of the world, after thousands of years
experience, at this rate, when will the millennium come? Is it
time, and is it necessary, for a new revelation from heaven, for the
commencement of a new era, for the opening of the dispensation
of the fulness of times, as promised in the scriptures, that the
words of th-^ prophets may be fulfilled? Is there inherent power
in humanity to rise, without divine aid? "To raise a mortal to the
skies," is it necessary to "bring an angel down" from heaven with
the everlasting gospel to be preached to every nation (Rev. 14: 6,
7, ) that the work of the Lord may continue with Ephraim, Judah,
and the outcasts of Israel that they may be gathered, (Isaiah 11:
1-13) "that out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem;" "that nations shall beat their swords
into ploughshares, and learn war no more"? (Isaiah 2: 3, 4.)

Is it necessary that an angel come down from heaven with a
great chain in his hand and bind Satan that he deceive the nations

MISSING LINKS. 965

no more for a thousand years? (Rev. 20: 1, 2) that the Lord may
come and find peace on earth and reign with his saints in the prom-
ised millennium? (Rev. 20: 4, 5, 6.) With lut inspiration from
heaven, can these missing links be supplied, and a people be pre-
pared for the second coming of the Savior?

Mancos, Colorado.

THE HOME CALL.

(on receiving an honorable release to return home from a foreign mission.)
{For the Improvement Era.)

The charm of England's smiling fields,
Of Scotland's hills with lochs between,
Of Ireland's stretch of cooling green

To Homeland's stronger summons yields.

A gray-sage reach of barren plain,

A wild aroma of the hills,

A gentle murmur of the rills —
These draw me westward once again.

Away from man and man's control,

Among eternal solitudes,

I dwelt so near to Nature's moods.
So near to Nature's very soul.

The spell yet holds, where'er I roam;

Nor tow'ring cities, busy marts,

With all that wealth or art imparts,
Can break the charm that draws me home

My home is desert-girt, I know —

The stars by night, the sun by day

Shine down upon the dusty way— ^

And yet it calls, and I must go.

Nbphi Anderson.

Liverpool, Aug. 20, 1906.

PRAYER.

BY W. B. DOUGALL, JR.

[The following thoughtful sketch was written by the late Elder W. B. Dougall,
Jr., while on his English mission, and appeared in the Millennial Star. — Editoes.]

Among the circumstances that were peculiarly characteristic
of the saints at the time of Chris fc, none were more steadily insist-
ed upon, or more frequently mentioned, by the apostolic writers
than this — that they ' 'walk by faith and not by sight. ' ' The
various graces, whose harmonious union constitutes the perfection
to which all Latter-day Saints aspire, seemed to be possessed by
the Saints at the time of the Savior, in different degrees, accord-
ing to their advances in righteousness; but owing to the peculiar
organization of some of the people at that time, who were endowed
with senses admirably constructed to perceive and enjoy the ob-
jects which surrounded them, and to whom the pleasures of life
were generally attainable without much painful exertion of strength
or faculties, the life of faith was not of easy attainment. To them,
accustomed to taste largely of the gratifications of life, the simple
truths of the gospel were seldom a welcome message. Invisible
things struck but faintly upon their minds, and the impression was
easily effaced by the intrusion of other images. So keenly was
this fact sensed by the apostle James, that, in his famous epistle,
he deemed it expedient to exhort those who were inclined to waver
to seek God earnestly in prayer, without wavering, and wisdom and
knowledge would be given them.

Prayer, which is the intercourse that takes place between the
soul and the great searcher of hearts— the act of asking for any-
thing needed, with earnestness or zeal, does not consist of mere
uttering of words, or any outward form; it is an act of spiritua

PRAYER. 967

devotion in which the soul is borne away for a time from all the
objects of sense to appear before the Creator, there to learn what
the profane, light-minded, and thoughtless can never appreciate.
It is a remarkable fact that God has always permitted his children
freely to hold communication with himself. From Adam to Enoch;
from Enoch to Nehemiah; from Nehemiah to John, the Revelator;
it is met with under every variety of circumstances; the poor and
needy were listened to, while the proud and disobedient cried in
vain for help; but no instances are recorded where anyone was
forbidden to pray.

It is an unspeakable consolation to every reflective and feel-
ing mind, that amidst all the changes, dissappointments, and van-
ities around us, there is One who is All-wise and perfect. The con-
templation of that divine being, who is the Father of all, the
centre of all excellence, is so congenial to the human mind, that
even if it were impossible to prove his existence by reasonable in-
ferences, man would be constrained to believe it from a necessity
of finding something to sustain him under the sense of his weakness.
Take God away and the great vision around us is only a dream.
The world in which we live is so constituted that everything
seems to proclaim aloud the perpetual existence of the Almighty.
It is a significant fact that there is not a single phenomenon of
thought or perception, respecting which, when correctly analyzed,
we are not compelled to confess that we can render no account of
it, except that such is the will of our Creator; thus confessing our
dependence upon him. The history of all science corroborates this
statement. One may study with the naturalist, experiment with
the physicist, and watch the chemist in his unfolding of the mar-
velous properties of matter, ponder over the intricate mechanism
of the human body, soar with the philosopher in the realm of met-
aphysics, yet, after all, it is difficult to conceive how life can be
sustained for a single hour without the preserving power of an all-
wise Creator unceasingly exercised upon us.

And is not the ordinary course of our conduct and experience
but one continual testimony to the watchful providence of God?
We retire to rest at night without the slightest solicitude, well
assured that we shall awake on the morrow with every function of
life restored and refreshed. The seed is committed to the earth

D68 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

in full assurance that, after a few weeks, it will exhibit signs of
life, atid subsequently yield abundantly. Day by day we are
clothed and fed; yet there is not a person in the universe who can
say for a surety that the sun will rise on the morrow. It is diffi-
cult to conceive a spectacle more striking than that which is ex-
hibited every day in a great nation, where ten, twenty, or sixty
millions of beings — none of whom can support life without a regu-
lar supply of food — retire calmly to rest at night, in a perfect con-
fidence that they shall find a supply for their wants on the follow-
ing day.

God has revealed himself not merely as the maker and judge
of the whole creation, not simply as its guardian and benefactor,
but he has taught us to regard him as a father — a watchful teach-
er, and an unfailing friend. He calls to us to come to him with
?thankful hearts; to place our whole confidence in him, to accept*
.as freely as he offers it, the gift of eternal life, and, casting away
isin, to walk henceforth as children of a parent who can never fail
'them, and who by his mercy causes to exist a relation of unrivalled
■dignity, of incomparable security, and of ineffable happiness.

Consider, for a moment, who is it that asks us to put our
trust in him? ''God who made the earth and all things that are
therein." In what language should we presume to speak to him!
The most extraordinary genius of modern times never pronounced
the awful name of Deity without a pause. It is an idea which
fills the mind at once, and which the highest natures will always
contemplate, with the profoundest reverence. He formed all
things. Nothing is too vast for his control; nothing too little for
the vigilance of his inspection. God invites us to pray to him, and
to put our trust in his word, and is he not trustworthy? The ordi-
nary blessings of life are apt to escape our notice; but our heaven-
ly father undoubtedly intended them as assurances of his unfailing
providence.

What words can more beautifully describe the blessedness of
prayer than those of the twenty-third Psalm, "The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my
soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's
sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of

PRAYER. 969

death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod, and thy
staff they comfort me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the
Lord forever." What cheerfulness, courage, peace and holy grat-
itude, Lreathe through this noble composition! Truly, they are
the rewards of placing confidence in God, and are everlasting
sources of happiness.

It has been said that there is no greater argument in the
world of a man's spiritual weakness, and the falseness of his heart,
in the matter of religion, than his backwardness in saying his
prayers: so weary of their length, so glad when they are done, so
ready to put an excuse. Yet it is no labor, nor trouble, he is thus
anxious to avoid, but the begging of a blessing and receiving it:
honoring his God, and by so doing, honoring himself, too.

God is the highest object to which the soul in all its powers
can be directed. None ever trusted in him without increasing in
spiritual strength, and discovering more and more of his plans, and
of the depth of his wisdom. The humble Saint knows that prayer
is his chief security in seasons of difficulty and temptation. Com-
pared with eternity, his life is almost nothing; yet such is his pres-
ent weakness, that he is seldom able to preserve an equal tenor
through this portion of existence. Distresses come upon him be-
fore he is aware, and find him ill prepared. Past failures render
him justly distrustful of himself; and his happiest hours are sad-
dened with the thought that perhaps temptations may hereafter
arise too powerful for his strength: or a new state of things might
insensibly turn his mind from spiritual pursuits, and steal from
him what hope and joy he had been laboring to attain. In the
midst of all his difficulties, however, he has the hope that spiritua
strength and knowledge may always be derived from his heavenly
Father, in proportion to his needs. How happy it is to believe,
with a steadfast assurance, that his petitions are heard even while
he is making them; and how delightful to meet with a proof of it
in the effectual and actual grant of them. The Latter-day Saints
have proved that mighty is the efficacy of such intercessions to
avert judgments; how much more available, then, may they be to
secure the continuance of blessings.

The Savior, in teaching his disciples how to pray, said that

970 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

they must ask in faith, believing that they would receive. They
were to enter into their secret chambers, and pray secretly to the
Father who would reward them openly. The mutual love and har-
mony, the delightful brotherly confidence, that existed among the
disciples were the fruits resulting from the obedience of those in-
structions. He taught them that when God gave a promise, the
expectation of its fulfilment was not only warranted, but it was
their duty to expect it, and God was dishonored if the fulfilment
was doubted. They should also supplicate the Lord in the spirit
of prayer, and in a becoming manner. None but the careless
and the confident would rush rudely into the presence of a great
man; and is it proper for us, in our supplications to our heavenly
Father, to take that to be religion which the common reason of
mankind will not allow to be manners?

To pray to God is to have his image ever before us; to enjoy
his Holy Spirit which causes the prayer of Jesus to be heeded,
"That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in
thee, that they may te one in us." They who humble themselves
before their Maker can testify of the tranquility it communicates,
the courage it inspires, the joy, gratitude, and holy affections it
breathes through the soul. ' 'Blessed are they that trusteth in
him."

Liverpool, England.

"WHAT IS WORTH WHILE."

'Tis not beauty, wealth nor power,

That maketh a happy heart;
'Tis not the polished oration,

Makes tears to the eye-lids start.
Power is not for the many.

And oft proves a curse to the few ;
Beauty, as rare as the winter rose,

But withers as roses do.
Truth from the lips of the humble,

Goodness that liveth alway,
Alone give joy that endureth,

Not fame that lasts but a day.

Waterloo, Utah.

Maud Baggarley

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CLOSE OF VOLUME NINE.

This number closes Volume IX, a volume of the Era which
will always be distinguished for the splendid memorial number of
the Prophet Joseph, and Weed's Life of St. Paul. We hope, dear
reader, that you have been well pleased with the Era, and that
you will promptly renew your subscription for volume X, which be-
gins November 1. There will be no break in receiving the maga-
zine, if your order is received by October 15. Your attention is
called to the prospectus in this number: please read it, and learn
of the many good things that are promised for the readers of vol-
ume X. Other features will be added as time advances. A glance
at the list of writers found herewith, in the index to volume IX,
will give an idea of what may be looked for, since these and many
others will contribute for the new year.

We sincerely thank our contributors for their valuable and
gratuitous assistance in the past, and for their promises for the
future. Likewise, we return thanks to the host of workers in the
ranks and among the officers of the Improvement Associations who
have obtained subscriptions and otherwise aided in the business of
the magazine, and we solicit their continued assistance. We ask
that returned missionaries who have enjoyed the Era during their
mission, free, give a lift to the cause at home, by subscribing, by
saying a good word for the Era, and by otherwise aiding to swell
the number of readers.

The association officers, who should always subscribe first,
themselves, should systematically and immediately begin soliciting.
By energy, enthusiasm, promptness, and determination, their suc-
cess is certain. The work can be done in a short time. If they

972 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

obtain five per cent of their ward, Church population they are en-
titled, on payment of the subscriptions to the office, to a rebate
for their association of 25 cents for each subscriber. Each sub-
scriber receives a copy of the Manual, price 25 cents, free; and
then, counting the free copies to the missionaries, and the fact
that each subscriber gets one thousand pages of good reading,
there ought to be no complaint at the price — $2.00 per year in ad-
vance.

As the Era begins the closing year of its first decade, we
feel grateful for its past success; and have every reason to look
forward to a career of continued usefulness, in which much good
may be done for mutual improvement among the young people, for
the great work of the Lord, and for the progress of his mighty
cause, to which the lives of the Latter-day Saints are dedicated.

THRIFT.

He that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds will hardly be preserved from de-
cay.— Bacon.

We have heard warnings from the Church authorities, these
many days, against extravagance and debt of all kinds. "Get out
of debt and stay out," is the \^atchword. But it is strange that
such warnings should be necessary. Evidently, however, they are,
for seemingly not a soul of us but is in debt; or, at least, if not
in debt, every cent we have earned is spent, and we have still
many ways to spend more.

It appears that if there is one practical lesson which the aver-
age youth needs above another, it is that of thrift. That means
a characteristic which teaches one how to spend money as well as
how to save it, and which at the same time saves one from finan-
cial dissipation. Thrift is not stinginess; neither is it that in you
which induces you to turn out the electric light to save a cent an
hour, and then tempts you to sit twice or three times a week in
the best seat in some theater. It is neither inconsistent with
generosity nor the synonym of niggardliness. It is simply a way
of living which transfers regularly and systematically a part of

EDITOR'S TABLE. 973

what one earns to one's capital, and which enables a man to sacri-
fice his desires to his financial condition rather than his financial
condition to his desires.

Thrift enables a boy who is earning $20 per month during his
summer vacation to save a percentage for his clothes and yearly
schooling, rather than to keep pace with the attractions of the
Salt Palace, Saltair, and Lagoon, or any other like place by any
other name. It teaches him self-denial, it liberates him from
worry over tomorrow, because today's self-denial has made him
prepared for the morrow; whereas, if other boys of his financial
class are not worried about tomorrow, it is because their creditors,
or their parents, or someone else, worry for them. Thrift gives
you reliance and self-respect, and guides on the way to independ-
ence. It teaches you also to warily begin charges, which once be-
gun will continue.

Now, how shall one be thrifty? No young man should set his
standard of living and scale of expenses by the full maturity of his
father's earning capacity. Let him set them by his own.
Determine to spend less than you earn. Even if your earning
capacity is great, if you wish a comfortable old age, you must
learn to live during your years of largest earning capacity as if
you were poorer than your income wculd indicate. Lord Bacon
says: "If a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses
ought to be but the half of his receipts; and if he thinks to wax rich,
but to the third part." There is always danger that associates
having larger incomes may set your standard of expenditure.
This must be carefully guarded against, and often requires con-
siderable moral courage. You must not establish a scale of living
which you hope to earn enough to maintain. To be thrifty you
must be exactly the reverse: before your expenses are deter-
mined upon, you should set aside your savings; and then your stand-
ard of living should and must be made to conform to the remain-
der. In this way you will be slower to enter financial obligations,
or to run up bills.

Few men on a salary will save, except under the following
rule given by an old financier: "Save before spending, rather than
save what you do not spend."

Finally, if you wish to save in your early days that you may

974 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

have money to invest later on in life, eliminate those small but often
foolish expenditures which scatter your income unappreciably but
relentlessly. You can easily tell what these are, if you stop to
think. Every man should train himself in saving; and also in giv-
ing to good causes. In the latter respect nothing can be better
than the training which the youth of the Latter-day Saints get in
the payment of their tithing. How judiciously to invest savings is
another aspect of the subject which may be spoken of later.

MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS.

A two-days' conference of the Central States mission was held at Jay Branch,
August 14-15. President James G. Duffin and Elder S. 0. Bennion were present.
This branch of the Church was organized in the spring of 1901, and is located in
Leavenworth Co., Kans. At its organization it had eleven members; but has now
a membership of seventy-five or eighty, and a meeting house which would be a
credit to any ward. Elder H. J. Bodily, conference president, and J. M. Redd,
Jr., clerk, write: "Generally speaking, the elders are treated very well through-
out the entire conference. By conversation with people, much prejudice is allayed
and many friends are made. As a result of faithful work in the city of Topeka,
three were baptized on Sunday, August 19 ; we have some warm friends and some
earnest investigators there. After reading the Era we give it to the people, and
find it to be an efficient worker in the spread of truth. We, too, have learned to
appreciate it more, since arriving in the missionary field."

The Era is favored with the following information by letter from President
Heber J. Grant:

The report of the British Mission for July, 1906, is as follows: Tracts
337,575, books 9,656, conversations 20,363, strangers' houses visited, 48,629.
This shows an increase as compared with July of last year of 79,271 tracts, 3,843
books, 4,283 conversations, 4,989 strangers' houses visited. We had 45 baptisms,
an increase of 19 as compared with last year. Average increase per elder: tracts
274, books 16, conversations 14.

Elder H. A. Gull, in a letter from Riverside, Calif., Aug. 21, says that him-
self and companion Elder Cuthbert Trimble have been in that field for three
months and find it difficult to present their message to the people. He says that
Riverside is one of the cleanest and prettiest cities in California, with a population
of about 12,000; there are twenty- four churches, and most of the people are
church goers. The elders have held some good street meetings, and spend from
four to five days each week in tracting. Their Sundays are spent with the Saints
and Elders of San Bernardino where the regular services are held. He closes by
saying: "The Era is a welcome visitor, and we take great interest in the mes.
sages from the missionaries. May God bless you and all the interests of Zion. ' '

EDITOR'S TABLE. 975

Elder Junius F. Wells, writing on the 16th of August from So. Royalton, Vt.,
where the monument to the Prophet Joseph Smith is located, says: "I am nearing
iihe end of my task here, and shall be glad to get through and back home again.
The place looks very well now that the grades are made, and the grass is begin-
ning to come up. Many people call; every day, from half-dozen to half a hundred-
This testimony in stone is doing its work, removing prejudice and awakening an
interest in our cause and people. It will, in years to come, be a place where many
■Saints will rejoice to come for their summer vacation."

Elder W. B. Martin in a message from Baltimore, Md., August 19, says:
"The Baltimore branch of the Eastern States Mission is in a flourishing condition,
and prospects for more baptisms aTe very bright. Both English and Gorman ser-
vices are held, the latter through the kindness of Elder Chas. M. Morris, who is
studying law in Washington, and comes to Baltimore every Sunday to speak in
that tongue. We have also a commendable Sunday school of which Elder Elihu
Call is superintendent. ' '

The report of the labors of the Swedish mission, for the month of July, 1906,
shows that the sixty-five missionaries in the mission distributed 13,214 tracts;
sold 2,395 books; held 243 meetings; baptized fourteen people; blessed three chil-
dren ; and visited 10, 184 houses.

De Ster of August 15, has an account of the visit of President Joseph F.
Smith in the Netherlands, on the 7th and 8th of August, accompanied by President
Heber J. Grant of the British Mission, and Elder Chas. Nibley, who journeyed with
him from Utah. Meetings were held at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, at which cities
President Smith and others addressed attentive and large congregations. They
left the Netherlands for a further visit to the continent on the 10th of August,
having visited the Bague on the 9th where Alvin F. Smith joined the party. The
visit of President Joseph F. Smith and partv is of unusual interest, as it is the
first time that a President of the Church, during his presidency, has visited Europe,
and it came also as a surprise to the Saints and elders.

Elder Tracy Y. Cannon writing from Berlin, Germany, August 20, says : "I
assure you that the Era is a valuable friend of mine. It is one of the best papers
that the Church ever published. Its pages are full of noble thoughts. It truly
teaches that 'The Glory of God is Intelligence.' "

Elder Jos. A. Fife, president of the Leeds conference, England, writes
August 22, to the Era: "The Lord is blessing us here, and we are meeting with
very good success. Many are investigating the gospel; we have many friends
here; we feel greatly encouraged, and thank the Lord for his blessings to us."

Elder E. M. Guest, Torey St., Nelson, New Zealand says, August 10: "The
Era is certainly appreciated by all the elders. They can get people to read it
when they will not read other books, and a great amount of good results there-
from. People who will not meet the elders are still anxious to read the Era which
is thus performing a great missionary work. As elders we feel grateful for the
ivilege of receiving it."

976 IMPROVEMENl ERA.

Elder James King writing from Gisbome, Poverty Bay, New Zealand, August
13, says: "My Maori companion, Hoone Peepe, and I have just finished a thirty-
day trip among the Tuhoi natives, who are known as the least civilized of all the
tribes found in New Zealand. We found them very kind and hospitable, and many
of them listened eagerly to our message. The future prospects are promising for
work among this particular tribe."

By letter from President J. P. L. Breinholt, of the Aalborg conference, Den-
mark, we learn : ' 'There are eight branches in this conference in which twenty-
two elders and one lady missionary are laboring with reasonably good success. ' '

Elder Wells L. Brimhall of Amsterdam, Netherlands, sends the following mes-
sage, dated August 25: "The Era is a valuable aid to us in our missionary work.
We find it to be not only an explainer of the scriptures, but it keeps us posted on
what is being done in other parts. We appreciate it very much. In the Church
in Amsterdam there are 592 souls, divided into two branches. Prospects are flat-
tering for a good increase. We baptized seven persons this month, two of whom
were the last left of the 'Reorganites,' in this city."

Elder Alma 0. Taylor writing from Tokyo, Japan, August 24, says: "Elder
Woodland and his companion arrived well and happy last evening. I am happy to
state that owing to the diligent, and intelligent labors of Elder John W. Stoker
together with the blessings of God, in raising up assistance to the work, the trans
lation of A Brief History of the Church is nearly ready to go into the hands of the
printer."

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Revelation on War.

When was the revelation on war (Sec. 87, Doctrine and Covenants), first
printed, and where?

The revelation on war, as contained in Sec. 87 of the
Doctrine and Covenants, was printed by Elder Franklin D. Rich-
ards in the first edition of the Pearl of Great Price, in 1851.
He received a copy of the revelation from Elder Orson Pratt at
Liverpool, where the former was then laboring. In the Millennial
Star, 1851, page 216, a notice of the publication of the first edi-
tion of the Pearl of Great Price appears, with a list of its con
tents. In this list is included "a revelation given in December,
1832, which has never before appeared in print." It follows clear-
ly from this that the revelation was given to the world years be-
fore the event it foretold took place; and that its first publication
was by the late Apostle Franklin D. Richards in the Pearl of Great
Price, printed in Liverpool, in 1851.

NOTES.

We cannot help anybody farther up than we stand ourselves.

The right part in a quarrel belongs to the one who first shows the part of for-
giveness.

If all the rest of the world seems crooked, it is a sure sign that you need to
set yourself straight.

A man isn't to blame for what he was when he was born. He is to blame if
he doesn't make some improvement on it.

The human race is divided into two classes— those who go ahead and do
something, and those who sit and inquire, "Why wasn't it done the other way?" —
0. W. Holmes.

"Time past is gone, thou canst not it recall;
Time is thou hast, improve that portion small;
Time future is not and may never be.
Time present is the only time for thee."

A mother is responsible for early restraint of her child. The work which
schoolmasters and legislators cannot do for the sturdy and rebellious youth, or for
the stalwart and ungovernable man, might have been done by the earlier and gen-
tler restraints of a mother's firm and faithful tenderness.— Mrs. Sigourney.

Many a father who has won his way from poverty to riches by hard and
grinding toil makes the mistake of deciding that his boy shall not know the
drudgery of daily routine, and brings the lad up in idleness, with all the pocket-
money he can spend. Attention has lately been called to such a one [Thaw, the
millionaire murderer of White, the New York architect], now awaiting trial for
murder, whose father gave him a thousand dollars a month while he was still un-
der twenty-one and a pupil in a boarding schoo 1. It is not surprising that he fell
on the pathway paved for him with slippery gold pieces. — Fou^A's Companion.

"Paderewski rented rooms in a certain flat in order to practice unmolested.
A friend, hearing of this, thought it would be a good opportunity to learn from
the master's practice hours, so he rented the rooms directly above. The first
day of practice, Paderewski played the same passage over about five hundred
times. The friend paid the rent and left.

"It is this dogged, critical repetition which makes great men and women in
all the walks of life. Make every day's practice successful, no matter how little
the success may be. The way to reach the ideal tomorrow, is to make today a
day of work instead of a day of hope. Work, do not worry."

IN LIGHTER MOOD.

"What is Jigson in mawning for, do you know?" "It's eithaw faw his
bwothaw aw his dawg; one of 'era died lawst week, but I weally fawget which it
was."

Not Always. — "Your bookkeeper seems to be a bright young woman."
' 'Yes ; but she has some very eccentric ideas. ' '
"Indeed?"

"Yes. She enters our messenger boy's wages as 'running expenses.' " —
Tit-Bits.

Tommy seemed to be engaged with some problem. "Papa," he said, " 'Do
unto others as you would have others do unto you,' — that's the Golden Rule, isn't
it, papa?" "Yes, my son." "And it's puffickly right to follow the Golden Rule,
isn't it, papa?" "Yes, indeed." Tommy rose, went to the cupboard, and re-
turned with a knife and a large apple pie. The latter he placed before his as-
tonished sire with great solemnity. "Eat it, papa!" he said.

Two Irish farmers who had not seen each other for a long time met at a fair.
They had a lot of things to tell each other. "Sure, it's married I am," said
Murphy.

"You don't tell me so," said Moran.

"Faix, yes," said Murphy, "and I've got a fine healthy bhoy which the
neighbors say is the very picture of me."

Moran looked for a moment at Murphy, who was not, to say the least, re-
markable for his good looks, and then said, "Och, well, what is the harum so
long as the child's healthy." — Dublin Gazette.

• Hon. Joseph H. Choate observed recently that of all the witty men he had met
during his stay in London the one whose quickness of humorous perception most
nearly approached the American type was the clergyman, the late Dean Hole.

Mr. Choate says that he was one of a party with Dean Hole to cross the
Channel after a visit to the Continent. The voyage had been a rough one, and
the dean had suffered greatly during the whole trip. When the party landed at
Dover, the dean, in strolling about the railway station, chanced to stop before a
printed notice of the company's rules pasted on the wall. As Mr. Choate came
up, the dean said:

"Mr. Ambassador, it occurs to me that after that stormy voyage of ours we
have at least one advantage in making the subsequent trip to London."

"How so?" asked Mr. Choate.

"Why," replied the dean, "I perceive by this notice that the company carries
returning empties at reduced rates." — Harper's Weekly.

OUR WORK.

TO STAKE AND WARD OFFICERS OF THE Y. M. M. 1. A.

Dear Brethren:— At the 11th Annual M. I. A. Conference, heW in June,
1906, a resolution was adopted requiring a Committee to review the various topics
treated, such review to be sent to the stake and ward officers. The Committee
report follows, as approved by the General Board :

Pernicious Habits.

We learn with much regret that from various causes some of our young men
have fallen into evil habits, such as profanity, using tobacco, and liquor, frequent-
ing saloons and pool rooms, and spending considerable time loafing on street cor-
ners, all of which is demoralizing. In some localities card playing is still indulged
in, notwithstanding the urgent appeal of President Joseph F. Smith to the con-
trary, and we feel that our officers should labor energetically to correct this, and
other evils. Our attention was called to the prevalence of buggy riding, base ball
sports, and other diversions on the Sabbath, all of -which are to be deprecated, as
they undermine the spirituality of our young people. We appeal, therefore, to
our young men generally to assist in eradicating these evils, and we urge them not
to countenance unprofitable, nay sinful recreation on the Sabbath day.

Amusements.

Recreation and amusement are indispensable to our social and moral develop-
ment, but should be under the same vigilance and control as our religious training.
The best method for this control is to co*operate with the ward amusement com-
mittee for each ward, under whose direction excursions, picnics, dances, etc.,
should be given. Excursions to canyon and other resorts, should always be con-
ducted by proper chaperones. Dancing parties, beginning and ending at reasonable
hours, are proper enough, if not indulged in to excess; but we regard the public
dancehall, with its promiscuous and unselected patrons, as a menace to the morals
of any community. Too much dancing is not commendable. It encourages late
hours, mental lethargy, and intellectual laziness. We recommend instead, more
music, vocal and instrumental concerts, the drama, and uplifting literary enter-
tainment. AH our members can engage in these better recreations and thereby
gather more zeal for the more serious spiritual work outlined for our associations.

Officers and Officers' Meetings.

The following remarks by Elder Douglas M. Todd are pertinent to this
subject :

980 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

What it means to be an Officer. — Large numbers of our officers do not
sense the responsibility of their positions. They do not realize that the welfare
of the young people of.their communities is, for the time being, largely in their
keeping, and that the progress made will depend on the earnest effort which they
put into the service. In many instances the efficiency of our work has increased
50 per cent in a single season mainly through the efforts cf a devoted leader, while
the instances are more numerous where valuable ground has been lost, and care-
lessness and indifference have increased among the young men because of the neg-
lect of an important officer.

No young man can afford to take the responsibility of allowing the work to
depreciate under his supervision. Neglect of duty weakens his own character and
injures every member of his association. Where, for any reason, a young man
cannot perform faithfully the duties of his office, he should be the first to urge the
selection of someone who can.

The General Board understands fully and appreciates highly the splendid work
being done for Improvement by a large number of our officers, but there are still
too many who are not sufficiently loyal to the cause.

For their own good and for the good of the associations, these should be either
converted or eliminated early in the season. Each officer should be given a thorough
understanding of the work assigned him, and where there is neglect in its per-
formance, changes should be made.

Where officers fail to lead out as examples in the requirements made of their
members, their influence in the association must necessarily be a minus quantity.
Last year's statistics show that hundreds of our officers failed to meet these re-
quirements. We have about 30,000 members enrolled, 12,418 in attendance, and
about 6, 000 officers. We collected only about'one- fourth of the Improvement Fund,
which shows that either the officers failed to send in the one-fifth that should have
come from them, or that they collected only a small per cent from the members.
The same argument applies to the Era. We ought to be getting about 5,000 sub-
scribers from our officers alone, and more than twice that many more from our
members and friends; but we are striving to make the circulation ten thousand
subscribers. The officers and one subscriber each will do it.

Indispensability op Meetings. — In no stake or ward has the work continued
in a satisfactory condition where officers have failed to hold regular meetings.
This is another requirement that should be insisted on. Where monthly reports
show that these meetings are being neglected, that stake or ward should receive
immediate attention or the work is sure to show the effects, if the neglect con-
tinues. Unless officers get together at least once in two weeks during the working
season to discuss conditions and plans, they will fail to get either an understanding
of the work or the necessary spirit for its performance. A suggestive order of
business for these meetings will be found in the convention outlines.

Careful attention should be given to planning conjoint work both in the ward
and in the stake, that the high standard of the work done in our monthly and
quarterly conjoint meetings may be mairtained and improved upon. To do this
regul ar conjoint officers' meetings must be held.

OUR WORK. 981

We consider the privilege of holding an Improvement igeeting on the Sunday
evening of the quarterly conference of the several stakes of the highest importance,
and trust that our stake officers will not fail to show appreciation of this privilege
by utilizing it to the very best advantage. A few choice literary and musical
selections should be provided, and the stake superintendent should always be pre-
pared to give a brief concise report of his work. If the necessary attention is given
to the monthly reports this will require no extra labor. In fact we feel that no
superintendent is fully up in his work who is not prepared to do this at any time
and without previous notice. More of our officers must either carry a thorough
knowledge of their stakes and wards in their heads or in their vest pockets before
our work will be what we hope to make it.

Monthly Reports.— We frequently discover late in the season that the work
in some locality has never been properly commenced or is being neglected, but the
cause is revealed too late to avoid the consequences. To avoid this, the system of
having both ward and stake report progress in the several departments of the work
has been instituted. It will require diligence on the part of all officers to make
these reports a success, but the fact that they are required will do much to stimu-
late officers to diligence in getting their work in shape. Failure to send in these
reports may be taken as an indication that there are failures along other lines, and
the ward from which they are not received should receive special attention.

•
Missionary Work, etc.

This subject received considerable attention , in Conference, and the general
sentiment prevailed that not only the officers but the members should be active
missionaries in their respective stakes and wards. The responsibility of this work
rests particularly upon the stake and ward officers, but suggestions were made that
energetic young men be appointed to visit, in their respective wards, such young
people as are not enrolled, inducing them, if possible, to become interested in our
work. The spirit of missionary work was strongly emphasized by President Francis
M. Lyman, and we suggest a careful reading of the address delivered by him.
(See Era, No. 9, July, 1906, p. 736.)

Co-operation of Parents. — Our Officers should strive to obtain the co-oper.
ation of parents in connection with the M. I. A. Work, since they can exercise a
great influence for good, and .should be interested in the habits and the spiritual
welfare of their sons. Efforts should be made to reach the parents as directly as
possible, informing them of our aims and methods, as well as giving them an out-
line of our work, so that they may understand, and intelligently co-operate in their
respective wards and stakes.

Conferences.

Officers of our associations should arrange to meet with the officers of the
Young Ladies' Associations in order to outline programs and discuss the work to be
done preparatory to the holding of ward and stake conferences. Where stake con-
ferences have been appointed, our officers should be especially energetic and ag-
gressive, obtaining suitable brethren to treat the various topics suggested. Stake

982 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

officers should determine to make the conference a success, utilizing the talents and
resources in their respective localities, so that in case members of the General
Board are not present the subjects may still be well handled, and profitable meet-
ings held. By so doing, the officers will develop a spirit of self-reliance, and this
will also be especially beneficial. When members of the General Board are not
present, prompt reports should be made of the conference to the General Secre-
tary, on the blanks furnished for that purpose. Our stake and ward officers
ghould solicit the support and co-operation of the authorities in their respective
wards and stakes, and labor as much as possible under their direction, as the sup-
port of our leading brethren is essential to the success of our work. Ward and
stake officers' meetings should be held regularly, and an invitation should be ac-
corded to bishops and stake presidents to attend, as it will bring them in closer
touch with M. I. A. work.

Class Teachers.

The lessons outlined for our M. I. A. associations are calculated to be faith-
promoting, but great care should be exercised in selecting competent class teach-
ers, and the very best material available should be obtained for this special work.
The ward authorities can always assist in securing the co-operation of talented
brethren to act as instructors. The success of our labors devolves to a marked
extent upon these class teachers, and we cannot impress too forcibly the importance
of giving great consideration to these appointments. At our conventions, special
instructions will be given to class teachers, and the following remarks on class
work, by Dr. George H. Brimhall, are submitted for the careful consideration of
our officers:

Class Leader. — Who? The best man in the community. No man is too
good to teach the legal heirs to the Priesthood, the covenant children.

Hotv to get him: At a council meeting make choices. Meet with the bish-
opric and get their help if necessary.

How to treat him: Appreciate him; invite him into your councils. Never
get jealous of him. See that his time, or the class work time is not cut off at
either end. Should he err, correct him privately with kindness and just as indi-
rectly as possible. Remember that men of ability can stand personal injustice,
much better than they can professional humiliation. Have a special code of M. I.
A. honor as a band of officers which forbids any airing of each other's faults.
Never side in with a member of the class against the leader without an investiga-
tion. Commend his efforts.

What he should do: Make up his mind that his is the B. W. 0. E. (best
work on earth). Do his work not for the fame or glory coming from it, but fop
the love of it. Get the members to work with him rather than for him. Prepare
fully by deciding upon a chief aim, choosing methods for the development of that
aim, and the best means of applying the aim of the lesson to life. Lessons lift
most as they are lived best. Still, an idea unapplied has its pull, and it may take
years for it to reach the pivot point of power where its turning force becomes
visible. Make of each recitation a "good time," a time of order, instruction,
and interest. The right kind of order comes from interest in the right things.

OUR WORK. 983

Have an iron fist of authority, but keep it in the velvet glove of courtesy and kind-
ness. Guard against "souring" the members of the class. Better learn little
and love it than much and dislike it. Look upon each member of your class as
yours. Let the roll call be by name and in a voice of culture indicating
personal interest. Always inquire after absent members. Never grumble about
those who are not there , nor at those who are there. Praise the good and pass by
the poor work; in fact, praise effort even if the results be poor. Have confidence
talks with the wayward and negligent members. Get help from the faithful mem-
bers in securing attendance of careless ones. Remember there is a wide difference
between an M. L A. class and a class in school. Be a constant inspiration as well
as an instniment of instruction. Always be ready to correct your own errors, and
willing to make a whole-souled apology to the least member, if you have done him
an injustice. So manage that the members will love their teacher, and love the
class, but more than all, love the things taught. Finally, remember, B. W,
0. E.

Class Work. — The Senior Manual has been prepared by a man eminent for
his scientific knowledge and ability as a teacher. It is really a study of the pro-
gressive constitution of the Church. It is especially fitted by simplicity and
cleverness as a guide into the field of the greatest truth ever revealed to the human
race. It is at once a manual of both doctrine and Church government and calcu-
lated to broaden the minds of men as to the inestimable value of the holy Priest-
hood as the delegated authority of God to man. It may fittingly be called an in.
strument whereby the student may be led to a new point from which he can see
the majesty of "Mormonism" and enjoy the view. Get it, study it, follow it, and
you will find it developing the best there is in you.

The Junior Manual needs no introduction as it has been tested and found full
of directive and attractive force as a guide to an acquaintance with the only per- '
feet earth-life — a Life that has done more for the betterment of humanity than
has the combined influence of all other earth lives. We move towards models
where they and we stop. Studying a God-life lived among men surely will develop
the divinity in men and help them to live to serve the Lord while they are young.

M, /. A. Privileges.

During our conference, attention was di-awn to the privileges accorded our
associations by the First Presidency, especially in connection with the conjoint
meetings held on the first Sunday of each month. At stake conferences, the Sab-
bath evening meeting has been assigned to our M. I. A. Associations, though in
some localities it has been found advantageous to use Saturday evening for this
purpose. These quarterly stake conjoint meetings granted us by the First Presi-
dency should be maintained, and the officers should be prepared to give accurate
reports of their associations for the benefit of the visiting brethren. Suitable
programs should be prepared, and we feel that the stake officers will cheerfully
accord the time which the brethren have granted to the M. I. Associations. On
fast day, the first Sunday in each month, the evening meeting in each ward has
been set apart by the First presidency for monthly conjoint meetings of the M. L

984 JMPROVEMENT ERA.

Associations. We have observed, of late, a tendency, in certain wards, to make
other appointments for this evening. This is often done without due thought, and
we feel confident that ward authorities will cheerfully recognize the claim of the
M. I. A. on these evenings, if proper representation respecting our rights in this
matter is made to them. M. I. A. officers should firmly but respectfully claim this
time and arrange suitable programs, so that the people who attend may be instruct-
ed and edified upon such topics as are allied to our work, and that will be profit,
able and suitable for Sabbath evening meetings. We suggest that a joint com-
mittee of the Y. M. and Y. L. M. I. A. arrange these programs, and that the young
ladies' oflJcers be invited to take places on the stand. The time should not be
devoted entirely to musical selections or to lectures upon topics not in harmony
with our work. We suggest, therefore, that in making programs for these monthly
conjoint meetings, although a few musical numbers may be introduced, religious
and ethical or intellectual instruction should predominate, and all the topics should
te so treated that they reflect the work of the M. I. A.

Supplementary Reading.

The subject of a supplementary course of reading to our general Manual
topics received considerable attention at our conference, and will be discussad
more fully at our coming conventions as you will observe from the circulars which
outline the programs. The books chosen for preliminary reading are Rasselas,
tiie text of which will be published in the Improvement Era, Volume X, and used
in the preliminary programs; John Halifax, GewiZemaw, a splendid old English
family story; and True to His Home, dealing in an instructive manner with the
interesting boyhood of Benjamin Franklin. The latter two books may be obtained
at the Deseret News Book Store, Salt Lake City, or at any book dealers. (See Era
for September, under this head.)

Prof. B. S. Hinckley expresses the sentiments of the Board on this subject,
when he says:

The object of introducing this course is three fold. First, to develop a taste
for the beautiful in literature; secondly, to cultivate the habit of reading good
books; and, lastly, to impart valuable information. The value of good books is
beautifully set forth in these words of Dr. Channing: "In the best books great
men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, pour their souls into ours.
God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead and
make us heirs of the wisdom of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They
give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the
best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am; no matter though the
prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers
will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my thresh-
hold and sing to me of paradise, and Shakespeare open to me the world of imagina-
tion and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin enrich me with his prac-
tical wisdom, I shall not pine for the want of intellectual companionship and may
become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in
the place where I live. ' '

Rolls.

There should be two rolls kept in each association. First, Membership roll.
This should contain the names of all male residents in each ward between the ages

OUR WORK. 985

of fourteen and forty-five, their consent, of course, having first been obtained.
This will involve gcod missionary work being done in order that all eligible per-
sons may be induced to enroll and also attend our meetings. Second, Attendance
roll. This roll should contain the names of all members who attend the first meet-
ing, and at subsequent meetings the names of all new members should be added.
This will constitute an active roll from which averages for the annual report will
be made.

Improvement Era.

"Ten thousand subscribers for 1906-7." This is our slogan — our watchword
as to our poriodical.

The reading of the Era will enrich and uplift our members spiritually and in-
tellectually. The magazine should be in every home, and to accomplish this will
require the active and early co-operation of every association in the Church.

Manuals For 1906-7.

The Senior Manual has been cirefully prepared bv Dr. John A. Widtsoe under
the supervision of the Manual committee appointed by t le General Board, and
treats on "Modern Revelation." The members will use the Doctrine and Cove-
nants or the History of the Church for reference. Our members will find this an
important and intensely interesting study and we urge the officers to place them
as early as possible in the hands of the young men. The Junior Manual on toe
"Life of Christ" is the same as used by the Seniors in 1897. For further partic-
ulars respecting the Era, Manual, fund, reports, etc., consult the suggestions of
Secretary' Edward H. Anderson, as given at the conference and embodied in a cir-
cular already generously distributed among the officers.

Conclusion.

We v/ere well pleased with the unanimity and good spirit that prevailed in our
conference and the enthusiasm manifested we trust has been imparted to the mem-
bers in the various wards and stakes.

In submitting the above, we realize that difficulty will arise in some localities
in carrying out our suggestions. In such cases the General Board will be pleased
to hear from the stake superintendents.

NOTES.

On Thursday, August 16, the Improvement Associations of Bingham stake,
Idaho, enjoyed their annual Field-day at Highland Park. Six Hundred young
people gathered to enjoy the program, and to take part in the reception which
was conducted in a congenial, wholehearted way. Races, basket-ball con-
test, base-ball game, wheel-barrow and other races, were features of the amuse-

9S6 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

ments. The happy day closed with a social dance in the early evening, and Supt.

Eobert Andrus and his co-laborers are to be congratulated upon the success of the

affair.

Some time ago, Alex. Buchannan, Jr., who has for a number of years acted as
superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Pioneer stake, was released, and his

former first assistant, Edward H. Eardley, has been installed superintendent.

President D. Heiner, of the Morgan stake, informs us that the Presidency

and High Council of that stake have selected Chas. M. Croft for the position of
superintendent of the Y. M. M. I. A. of that stake, to succeed Elder H. B.
Crouch who was lately appointed to another position.

At a district Y. M. M. I. A. conference, held in Garland, Sunday, August
26, of eight associations in Box Elder county: Garland, East Garland,
Bear River City, Elwood, Beaver, Deweyville, Bothwell, and Thatcher, — a district
stake board, consisting of James Jensen, superintendent, with Wilf ord Christensen,
Jas. P. Jepperson, and Hyrum Harper as aids, was organized under the direction
of Stake Superintendent E. P. Horsley. James J. Thompson was released as
president of the Garland assocation, and Alexander H. Archibald was chosen
president instead. Elder Nephi Jensen, stake M. I. A. secretary of Granite stake,
represented the General Board.

At a recent quarterly conference of the Wasatch stake, Aug. 5, the
following brethren were sustained as stake M. I. A. officers: John T. Roberts,
susperintendent, Lawrence B. Duke and T. De Vera Smith, assistants, Alfred T.
Bond, secretary, H. R, McMullin chorister and aid, and John W. Carlile and
Moroni Moulton aids. Geo. 0. Massey was sustained as president of the Daniel
ward.

We are informed by letter from Pima, Ariz., that Elder Wilfred T. Webb
was recently sustained as superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement
Associations of the St. Joseph Stake, in place of T. S. Kimball. The work of
Mutual Improvement Associations in that stake will be prosecuted vigorously in
all the departments.

At a conference held in Mesa, Ariz. , September 1 and 2, the Y. M. M. I. A.
of that stake was reorganized, Mahonri A. Stewart being chosen and set apart as
superintendent, with James W. Lesueur and James Miller assistants. These
brethren are all young men having splendid experience in the M. I. A., and the
work should prosper abundantly under their supervision.

The tenth anniversary of the Bradford Mutual Improvement Association was
held at Westgate Hall on Saturday evening, 21st of July, 1906. Brother Lamb,
president of the association, occupied the chair. The attendance was too large
for the room, on account of the many visiting elders. Elder Enniss gave a very
instructived address on Mutual Improvement work, and the report for the last year
was read. A very comprehensive program was rendered by members of the Mu-
tual Improvement Association, including a quartette by elders of the Leeds con-
ference, solos by Sisters Dickenson and Jeffries, a recitation by Sister Home, a
duet by Brother Mellor and his sister; also an attractive quartette by Sisters May
and Florence Higgins, Mr. Lawrence Higgins, and Dr. Higgins. — Millennial Star.

EVENTS AND COMMENT b.

BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON.

Ecclesiastical Changes. — At the one hundred and sixteenth quarterly con-
ference of the Wasatch stake, held atHeber, on August 11, President W. H. Smart
was honorably released as President of the Wasatch stake, having been called to
preside over the Uintah stake; and a new organization of the stake officers took
place, as follows: Jos. R. Murdock, stake president; James C. Jensen and Edward
Clyde, counselors; stake clerk, John P. McGuire in place of Jos. W. Musser who
was honorably released because of his removal to Uintah stake.

At the quarterly conference held at Vernal, September 2, Harden Bennion
and Thos. Smart were sustained as counselors to President Wm. fl. Smart, in the
stake presidency of the Uintah Stake.

At Thurber, Wayne Co., July 29, the resignation of Bishop Geo. W. String-
ham was accepted, and George Brinkerhoff was sustained as bishop, with Willard
Snow and B. G. Baker as counselors.

New Postmaster Named for Ogden.— On August 17, Hon. Wm. Glass-
man was appointed postmaster of Ogden City, according to a dispatch from Wash-
ington.

The Nationallrrigation Congress.— The National Irrigation Congress met
this year at Boise, Idaho, on September 3. In the absence of President Geo. C.
Pardee of California, the fourteenth annual session was called to order by Judge
L. W. Shurtliff of Ogden, first vice-president. Mayor James A. Pinney of Boise,
and Governor Frank R. Gooding, welcomed the delegates, 1,125 in number, rep-
resenting thirty states. A letter from President Roosevelt was read. On the
6th, the following officers were selected to attend to the affairs of the fifteenth
annual conference which will be held at Sacramento, Calif. : President — George
Chamberlain of Oregon; First Vice-president— John Henry Smith, Salt Lake City;
Second Vice-president — H. B. Maxson, Reno, Nevada; Third Vice-president— Geo.
W. Barstow, Texas; Secretary— D. H. Anderson, Chicago.

Utah was awarded the prize for the best fruit display.

Died. — In Mona, Juab Co., Sunday, July 22, Mary Ann Kay; born England,
April 9. 1842; came to Utah in 1854; mother of eleven children, and a widow of
the late Wm. Kay.— In Thayne, Wyo., Tuesday, 24th, Wm. Rowe, a member of

988 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

the Mormon battalion; born February 20, 1826; was baptized in 1845; enlisted
July 16, 1846. — In Spanish Fork, Thursday, 26th, Thos. D. Evans, a veteran of
the handcart pioneers. — In Heber, Friday, 27th, Christina Lindsay Muir, a pioneer
of that place, was buried. She was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and was eighty-
three years and twenty-two days old; she came to Utah in 1862. — In Salt Lake
City, Monday, 30th, Mary Ann Ludlow, who came to Utah in 1868, joined the
Church November 9, 1853. — In Provo, Wednesday, August 1, James C. Snyder;
born Philadelphia, January 8, 1820; joined the Church in 1853; and came to Utah
in 1861. — In Salt Lake City, Friday, 3d, James P. Law, of Cache Co., docket
clerk of the last legislature; a native of Scotland; forty-one years of age, and un-
married.— In Nephi, Saturday, 4th, Sarah C. Tranter; born in Belfast, Ireland,
seventy-eight years ago; joined the Church in 1850; and came to Utah two years
later. — In American Fork, Saturday, 4th, Steven Mott, born in Canada in 1822;
settled in American Fork in 1850; a prominent citizen in the community. — In
Grantsville, Saturday 4th, the funeral of 0. E. Barrus was held. He was born
September 14, 1845 in Nauvoo, 111., and emigrated to Utah in 1853. — In Hinck-
ley, Friday, 10th, Wm. Aldredge, seventy-two years and ten months of age. — In
Fairview, Sunday, 12th, ex-bishop Amasa Tucker, born in Connecticut, October
22, 1833; came to Salt Lake Valley, October 5, 1853.— in Richfield, Tuesday,
14th, Lars Peter Petersen; soldier in the Prussian war of 1848-50; born Denmark,
November 25, 1825; emigrated to Utah in 1862. — In American Fork, same date,
James Gardner; born England, June 4, 1829; came to Utah in 1855. — In Paradise,
same date, Geo. Webb; born in England; joined the Church in 1852; came to Utah
in 1863. — In Ogden, Wednesday 15th, the funeral of Sarah Ann Garner Herrick
was held. She was the widow of the late Hon. L. J. Herrick. — In Provo, same
date, Henry S. Brooks ; born in England seventy- four years ago ; one of the first
settlers of Lake Shore. — At Hagerman, Idaho, Saturday, 18th, Mary Ann Gollaher
Roberry; a true and devoted mother of eleven children; wife of the late bishop,
John Roberry; born Clinton, HI., July 24, 1829; came to Utah in 1849, settling
in Tooele County. — In Ogden, Thursday, 23d, M. S. Scott, born England, seventy-
three years ago last April; joined the Church forty years ago, and came to Utah
and settled twenty- three years ago. — At Colonia Diaz, Thursday, 23d, Patriarch
Isaac W. Pierce, born Illinois, August 22, 1829; and came to Utah with his mother
in 1852. — In Manti, Sunday, 26th, Edward L. Pany, a master mason and the
builder of the St. George and Manti temples; born August 25, 1818, in North
Wales; baptized March 2, 1848; and came to Utah in 1853. — In Lehi, Sunday,
26th, Mary Ann Comer Smuin, forty- two years of age, and mother of thirteen chil-
dren. She was born in Wales, and came to this country with her parents. — At
Rush Lake, near Parowan, Sunday 26th, David Ward, born England, January 13,
1834; came to Utah in 1849, and Parowan in 1853; and was one of the number
who rescued the body of Geo. A. Smith, Jr. , from the Indians, in the Navajo
Country. — In Pocatello, Idaho, Tuesday, 28th, John H. Calvert, a member of the
Mormon battalion, born Alabama, March 7, 1828; joined the Church in 1845; lived
at Huntsville, North Ogden, and in 1884 located in Idaho. — At Cortez, Colo., Fri-
day, 31st, Ada Dalton Jones, born Sevier Co., Utah, September 29, 1879.

EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 989

Idaho Politics.— At Pocatello, August 2, the Republicans of Idaho, placed
in nomination their ticket, nominating for United States Senator, W. E. Borah,
Boise; Congressman— Burton L. French, Moscow; Governor— F. R. Gooding, Boise;
Lieutenant Governor — E. A. Burrell, Montpelier; Secretary of State— H. S. Lansd-
son; also other officers. The resolution endorsed the administration, and sounded
a declaration of economy. The Democratic State Convention, held at Coer d'Alene,
Idaho, named the following ticket on August 7: Senator-— Fred T. Dubois; Con-
gressman—Rees H. Attabaugh; Governor— C. 0. Stockslager; Lieutenant Governor
— Geo. C. Chapin. Senator Dubois succeeded in having a drastic resolution passed
by the convention, barring all "Mormons" from political activity.

Utah Politics. — Hon. Lyman R. Martineau has been unanimously chosen by
the Democratic State Committee to succeed Hon. Simon Bamberger as Democratic
State Chairman ; and Hon. James T. Hammond has been named as Republican State
Chairman; vice Hon. "William Spry, now U. S. Marshal. The State Convention of
the Republican party is held Sept. 20, and of the Democratic party, October 4.
The "American" party is the fly in the ointment in Salt Lake City and County.

Heavy August Storms.— Throughout all Utah and the Western country,
heavy rains fell during the month of August, attended by considerable damage
in the way of cloud-bursts, and to grain and hay in the field and stack. Thousands
of bushels of wheat sprouted in the stacks and bundles, and much hay was de-
stroyed, especially in the upper valleys of Utah. During the latter part of the
month, an unprecedented four-days\ rain prevailed.

Silver Rising. — Somi thirteen" years ago the silver-purchase clause of the
So-called Sherman act was repealed, and the government ceased buying silver,
which caused a serious slump in that metal. The government has now again begun
to buy silver for the first time since the repeal, as the bullion is evidently needed for
coinage into small change carried by the multitude during the good times. There
are a large number of silver dollars in the treasury which are not current, because
of their light weight, and a bill was introduced in Congress at the last session, to
authorize the recoinage of these dollars into subsidiary coins; but it failed to pass,
and hence the need of purchasing silver bullion. Silver has now raised in price,
not only on this account, but also on account of large amounts used in India.

Foreign Emigration. — For the year endimg June 30, 1906, foreign emigra-
tion reached 1,100,073, which is an excess of 73,574 of the preceding year, and
the largest on record. During the year, 12,433 emigrants were returned to their
native countries, mostly owing to diseases. Most of this vast emigration came
from Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Italy.

Spelling Reform. — President Roosevelt has ordered the public printer,
hereafter to print all messages from the president, and all other documents from
the White House, in accordance with the recommendation of the Simplified Spelling
Board, of which Prof. Brander Matthews, of Columbia University, is chairman.
The board's list includes three hundred words which are simplified in spelling by

990 ' IMPROVEMENT ERA.

dropping letters which are not sounded, substituting single vowels for diphthongs,
and a final "t" for "ed." Many of the words are already in use, such as thru,
tho, armor, program, instead of through, though, armour, programme. The
English press has greatly objected to the president's arbitraiy order, v/hich has
also given the American editors something to harp upon. The president, in a
letter to the public printer, in answer to criticism, says:

They [the new wordsl represent in the world but a very slight extension of
the unconscious movement which has made agricultural implement makers and
farmers write plow instead of plough, which has made most Americans write
"honor" without the somewhat absurd superfluous u, and which is even now mak-
ing people write program without the "me" — just as all people who speak
English now write bat, set, dim, sum and fish, instead of the Elizabethan batte,
sette, dimme, summe and fysshe; which makes us write public, almanac, era, fan-
tasy, and wagon, instead of the publick, almanack, sera, phantasy and waggon of
our great grandfathers.

William Jennings Bryan's Return. — It is now over a year since William
Jennings Bryan left New York for his travel about the world. He returned on
Thursday, August 30, entering New York as the guest of the Commercial Travel-
ers Anti-Trust League, who arranged for a speech from him at the Madison Square
Garden, that evening. He traveled over India, the Philippines, Japan, the Chi-
nese Coast, and a large part of Europe, and was received with great distinction
everywhere: kings and royalties doing him honor. During his trip he is said to
have received $1,000 a week from a syndicate, for a weekly letter which, to-
gether with royalty on the book, will perhaps net him $50,000, after all ex-
penses are paid. In his speech he made a full statement of the issues which
should be supported by the Democratic party; he touched on the growth of arbi-
tration; the "Drago" doctrine, which the late Pan-American Congress, in session
at Rio de Janeiro, adopted by unanimous vote, and which simply means that
force ought not to be used in the collection of public debts: the ultimate independ-
ence of the Philippines; meetings of Congress; election of Senators by direct
vote; the income tax; arbitration in labor disputes; government by injunction;
eight hour labor day; trusts; interstate tariff; railroads; and the centralization of
government. He also argued that the logical outcome of monopolistic trusts is
Socialism. His endorsement of the government ownership of railroads seems to
have chilled the fever of his welcome, and it is safe to say he was more popular
while absent than he is today — especially in the thirteen southern states that view
with suspicion and alarm the faintest trace of Federal encroachment on the rem-
nant of states rights still left them.

Russian Affairs. — The outrages of terrorists in Russia are rapidly increas-
ing. The governm.ent made wholesale arrests and deportation of agitators, and
the moderate element on both sides seem to be without influence. The situation
appears to have resolved itself into a duel between the reactionary forces con-
trolling the government, and the Revolutionists who continue to commit shock-
ing crimes in the name of liberty. On the 25th of August an attempt was made
to assassinate Premier Stolypin at his country home. Thirty- two persons were

' EVENTS AND COMMENTS. 991

killed, and nearly as many seriously injured. The Premier's daughter and son, hia
private secretary, chief of his personal guard, the court chamberlain, several dis-
tinguished officers, and the four assassins who entered the home, were killed. The
Premier escaped with but slight injury. The next day Gen. Min was killed. He
was a personal adjutant to the suite of the Czar, and had been condemned to
death by the terrorists, last December, on account of his severity in repressing the
Moscow revolt. The Revolutionists appear to be masters of the Baltic Provinces
and their secret tribunals punish much like those of the Kuklux times in the South.
The Czar has decided, so it is reported, to make a second grant to the peasants,
of land belonging to him and to the state. This grant is not a gift, but permis-
sion to the peasants to buy the land on the terms assigned ; but this does not satis-
fy the peasants who have demanded the land free as a gift, just as the land was
given at the time of the emancipation of the serfs. Latest advices state that on
the 8th and 9th of September a Jewish massacre occurred, in Russian Poland,
which had been carefully planned by the soldiers, and at which 200 Jews were
killed, and 1,000 wounded; stores were pillaged, and the army officers openly
countenanced the selling of loot. That the massacre was carefully planned before-
hand, is evidenced from the fact that the soldiers warned the Christians to hang
out their Ikons, so that they might remain undisturbed. The soldiers behaved
v/ith extraordinary brutality. The city of Siedlce, where the massacre occurred,
has 30,000 inhabitants, one half of whom are Jews.

New Commissioner of Education.— Dr. Wm. T. Harris, who for many
years has occupied the position of Commissioner of Education for the United States,
recently resigned, and President Roosevelt appointed in his stead. Dr. Elmer E .
Brown, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who belongs to the group of
younger men among the educational leaders of our country. Though born in New
York, he is in a larger sense a representative of the Middle West and Pacific Coast.
Since 1893, he has held the position of Professor of Education in the University of
California. He has written two works, The Origin of American State Universi-
ties, and The Making of Our Middle Schools. It is said that for "scholarly-
method, scope of research, and comprehensive grasp of the many social factors
that enter into the life of institutions," the latter work will long rank as an edu-
cational classic. In 1904, Dr. Brown was appointed president of the National
Educational Association.

Revolution in Cuba. — The world was startled on Monday morning, August
20, with the announcement that revolution is rampant in Cuba, actual attacks
having been made upon the government posts in the western part of the island.
The storm broke out on Sunday afternoon, and since then wholesale arrests have
been made by the government of members of the element opposed to President
Palma's administration, including generals, ex-consuls, ex-ministers, congress-
men, senators, and fifteen leaders in the General Garcia campaign for the presi-
dency in the late election. All are held on charges of attempting to assassinate,
and plotting to assassinate President Palma. There is sympathy with the rev-
olutionists in some of the provinces, and fighting is reported from Pinar Del Rio,

992 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

where six insurgents are reported killed. Early in the week ending Sept. 1 the
Palma government issued a proclamation offering amnesty to insurgents who would
lay down their arms. The effect was rather to encourage than to discourage the
insurrection, and the government later withdrew the order, and adopted severer
measures. The U. S. warship Denver was sent to Havana, to safeguard American
interests, and, in case of jeopardy of President Palma's life, or the overthrow of
the established government, will perhaps land sailors, and intervene in the contest
— a right which it is understood the constitution grants to the government of the
United States. In this connection the following from Harper's Weekly Is perti-
nent as to the cause of the insurrection :

That the so-called Liberals, who have contributed most of the recruits to the
insurrection, have a grievance is undeniable. That the Moderates, as the upholders
of the Palma regime are termed, were guilty of gross frauds at the last appeal to
the ballot-box seems evident on the face of the official figures. Before the elec-
tion day arrived the Palma government announced that the number of registered
voters exceeded 430,000 in an aggregate population of about 1,500,000. That is
to say, the number of qualified adult male voters was said to constitute more than
thirty per cent of all the men, women, and children resident on the island. To
appreciate the mendacity involved in this averment, we need only recall that in
1904, when in the United States, exclusive of Territories and transmarine depen-
dencies, the number of inhabitants must have exceeded 80,000,000, the total po-
pular vote fell short of 13,524,000, or, in other words, represented less than
seventeen per cent of the aggregate population. It is well known that so glaring
was the fraud committed in the registration that, by way of marking their indig-
nation, the greater part of the Liberals abstained from going to the ballot-box.

President Roosevelt has issued an open letter to the Cubans, in which he ad-
jures all Cuban patriots to sink personal differences and ambitions, and thus pre-
serve the independance of the Republic by preventing the necessity of outside
interference. This is regarded as a warning that if the United States is reluctantly
compelled to resort to armed intervention in order to restore order in Cuba, it will
be a deathblow to Cuba libre. The cruisers Cleveland and Tacoma have been
ordered to leave Key West, and the former was to convey Secretariy Taft to
Havana where he will umpire a commission of arbitration between the insurgents
and the government. While this is going on, peace has been declared between the
contending forces. Secretary Taft and party reached Havana on Wednesday
September 19.

M. LA. Work in Turkey.— Elder J. Wilford Booth writes from Aintab,
Turkey, August 10: — We are holding M. I. A. Conjoint meetings, a great mnovation
on the girl-oppressing customs of the Orient. Fanatics occasionally leave the
meeting, but the novelty of the program brings others back. My friend G. Moug- ,
hamian, one of the noted school teachers of the Gregorian Church, in this city
and Northern Syria, who has been a careful reader of the Era for about five years^
once made this statement to me: "I can get more sound thought from a single
page of the Era than I do from whole volumes of other Christian literature. ' '

A good book is like a good name— belter than riches.

Improvement Era

ORGAN OK

YOUNG MEN'S MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT
ASSOCIATIONS,

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRKST OF I.ATTER-DAY SAINTS.

VOLUME NLNE.

PUBI^ISHED BY THE GKNERAl, BOARD.

"What you young people want, is a magazine that will
make a book to be bound and kept, with something in it
worth keeping." — President John Taylor.

EDITKD BV

JOSEPH F. SMITH AND EDWARD H. ANDERSOX
Heder J. Grant, Manager

SAI^T I,AKE CITY.
1906.

The Glory of God is Intelligence.

IMPROVEMENT ERA, VOL IX.

INDEX TO SUBJECTS.

Page

A Custom— An Opportunity 40S

Adventure in Cliff Canyon, An.. 273
Adventures on the Way to Ari-
zona 621

Another Fulfillment of the An-
gel's Propliecy S94

Atonement 265, 397, 471

Atonement, Why it was Neces-
sary, The 185

Benjamin Franklin's Bi-Cen-

tenary 323

Be Somebody 3 J6

Bon Festival, The 222

Booli of Mormon Translation 706

Book of Mormon, Internal Evi-

rences of the Truth of the.... 913
Brand Plucked From the Burn-
ing, A . .685

"Cadmanites," The 924

Cause of Defeat— Price of Suc-
cess 85ft

Christianity in Japan 391

Common Sense, Its Reliable-
ness 450

Concerning the Education of

Young Men 345, 437, 505, 640, 789

Courtship of Kanosh. The 21

Coyotes, A Tale of the Hills.... 215
Development of Individuality in

Children. The 8S3

Door to Forgiveness, The 209

Editor's Table 54, 246,

337, 410, 493, .558, 651, 731, 812, 897, 971
Annual Church Conference,

The 558

Behavior— A Subject for the

New Tear 25

Church Stands for. What

the 562

Close of Volume Nine 971

Conference Benediction 56

Correction, A 339

Doctrinal Subjects 63

ERA, Volume Nine 60

Fashion and the Violation of

Covenants and Duty 812

Father's Prayer for his Mis-
sionary Son, A 565

Great Work of the T. M. M

I. A 560

Greetings from the First

Presidency -^^fjg

Lesson for the Boys A '33"
Lesson in Natural Calami-
ties, The 651

Memorial Number C2

Miscellaneous Subjects Al-
ready in Hand 63

Mission Homes 5ga

Not Naturally Religious.'.!'""493

Not Understood 248

Priesthood Quorums, Work

for the 559

Principle, Not Popularity!!! '731
Prosperity, Love and Union.. 55S

Pulpit Politics 410

Short Stories— Offers lo Writ-

„ers 61

Signs of Christ's Coming'

Are These sg}

Spiritual Feast, A !!'" 54

Thrift 972

Tithing Exceeds Previous

Years 551

T vi^elve. The 55;}

University Scholarship 62

Waywardness and its Rem-

^e4y 897

What the Church Stands for. 562
Work for the Priesthood

Quorums 559

Young Men, For the 41:j

Y. M. M. I. A.— The Great

Work of the 560

Events and Comment? 75, 260,

341, 419, 499, 577, 6.9. 739, -825, 908, 987

Alice Roosevelt Married 504

Arthur L. Thomas Confirmed

Postmaster 504

Auditor's Report of Church

Funds 58:}

Awakening of China 343

Brigham Young College Trus-
tees 661

Bryan's Faith in Publicity,

Mr 83i

Canton-Hankau Railroad SO

Christ of the Andes 7f

Church . Superintendent of

Schools 66«

Congress Adjourns 831

Congress and New York 831

INDEX TO SUBJECTS.

Page

Connecting Farming Districts

with Telephone Exchange... 579
Curious Political Conaiiions

in Prussia, The 420

Deaths:

Adair, Elder Thomas J — 912

Anthony, Susan B 504

Beesley, Ebenezer 57»

Bush, James W 827

Fjelsted, C. D 342

Graham, John C 578

Ibsen, Henrik 741

Jackson, Elder Aaron W..912

Jacobs, Ira N *24

Johnson, Patriarch Ben-
jamin P 264

Johnson, Elder Wallace

L, 912

Merrill, Apostle M. W....42S

Morrell, Joseph 744

Schurz, Carl 74a

Smith, Jesse N 740

Stevens, Elder Geo. •W....912
Daughters of the Pioneers at

Gaidar's 82b

Died 78, 79, 261, 263, 342,

422, 500, 580, 662, 743, 826. 908, 987
Disaster on the Society Is-
lands 499

Distinguishing Ervents of the

Tear 1905 341

Double Semi-Centennial An-
niversary 577

Dowie and Zion 264

"Dreadnought" — England's

Monster Battleship 502

Dreyfus Reinstated, Captain.. 832

Ecciesisastical Changes

„... 421, 500, 580, 825, 987

Football Reform 343

Foreign Emigration 980

Greece, Olympic Games in... 661

Hawaiian Band, The 830

How a King was Made

261, 501

How to Keep Well 261

Idaho Politics 989

In "American" Hands 343

Insurance Affairs 503

Isthmian Canal, The 344

Jamestown Exposition, The.. 90S

Joint Statehood Bill 419

King of Norway, Coronation

of the : 832

Korea in Process of Absorp-
tion 828

Largest Ship Afloat, The 827

Late Elections, The 264

Law Makers in Session 343

Lesson of the Life of Hirini

Whaanga 250

Massacre of Jews 827

Meat Inspection 740

Mission Work 344

Morocco Conference, The 420

Murder of Missionaries in

China 503

M. I. A. Work in Turkey 992

M. I. A. Lecture Bureau 77

National Irrigation Congress,

The 987

New Chief of Staff for Gov.
Cutler 578

New Church Officers 582

New Commissioner of Educa-
tion 991

New D. A. & M. Society Of-
ficers 582

New English Liberal Cabinet. 264

New King of Denmark 423

New President for Latter-day

Saints' University 580

New Surveyor-General 75

Oklahoma, The Forty-sixth

State of the Union 743

Oklahoma, The New State 831

Old Folks' Reception 826

Pathfinders Guests of Senator

Clark 76

Political Changes 424

President's Visit to Panama,

The 829

Reduced Passenger Rates 740

Result of Persecutions in Nor-
way mi

Revolution in Cuba 991

Russian Affairs

503, 659. 741, 910, 990

Salton Sea, The 909

San Francisco, Earthquake

and Fire in 584

San JFrancisco Cataclysm, El-
ders in 664

Self Culture, A New Book on. 826

Sheep Industry in Utah 343

Simplon Tunnel Opened 742

Smoot, Case of Senator.. 422, 739
Spanish Royal Marriage. .662, 741

Spelling Reform 98'J

State Experimental Farm 343

State Fair, The 76

State Medical Association 661

Sunday School Conference 680

Sweden and Norway 79

Taylor Stake, History of 744

Touts Sing on Ship, The 744

Trib,ute to Mother 577

Uintah Stake, Organization

of 825

Union Depot for Salt Lake 77

Utah and the Portland Fair.. 78

Utah's Gold and Silver 344

Utah Municipal Tickets 75

Utah Politics 989

Valparaiso, Earthquake in 912

France's New President 319

Freedom of Donald Gray, The 484

Frontispiece:

Conference of Elders at Rot-
terdam 425

MuUiner. H. L 913

Smith, Joseph, the Prophet.. 81

St. Paul, bv Thorwaldsen 1

Wells, Junius F 2^

Fruits of Disobedience, The 554

Galveston 930

Great Test, The 466

Happy Life, The 721

Help Encourage 465

His Awakening 521

How to be Happy 273

In Deeper Tone 627

In Lighter Mood

68, 257, 416, 574, 819, 978

In the Land of Ferns 692

Jason's Revenge 857

INDEX TO SUBJECTS.

Page

Laughter Aids Digestion iSl

Life of St. Paul for the Young

1, 192,

281, 349, 443, 534, 585, 674, 775, 870. 937

Loaf of Bread, A 603

Man's Free Agency 213

Man Who Does Things, The.... 772
Memorial Monument Dedication

(Illustrated) 308, 375

Messages from the Missions... 255,"
340, 413, 495, 570, 654, 733, 815, 900, 974

Missing Links 962

Missionaries at Rotterdam 479

Mormon Boy at College, The la

New Year's Shrine, A 231,296

Notes 67, 418, 906, 977

"Obey Counsel" 328

Observations on Religious Condi-
tions in Great Britain 799

Our Goal and Self^Insistence. ...846

Our Work 69,

258, 417, 498, 575, 657. 737, 820, 903, 979

Annual Field Day 74

Annual M. I. A. Fund 259

Class Methods 6'J

Conference and Pair 498

Conference, Eleventh Annual

M. I. A 735, 820

Conference, General M. I. A.. 575
Conference Y. L. and Y. M.

M. I. A 575

M. I. A. Fund, Annual 259

Conjoint M. I. A. Conferences,

1905-06 25S<

Conventions, The Annual M.

I. A 738, 903

Dougall Released, W. B. 417

Fair and Conference 498

Minutes to be Read and Ap-
proved 41V

Missionary Work 736

M. I. A. Conferences, 1906-06,

Conjoint 25S

Notes 657, 906, 885

Obstacles 72

Officers and Secret Societies.. 576

Officers, Changes in 418

Reading. Supplementary 906

Report, Come Prepared to 417

Secretaries, Changes in 259

Secret Societies, Officers and. 576

Splendid Organizations 73

Stake and Ward Officers, To.. 979
Summit Stake Superinten-

dency Re-organized 576

Supplementary Reading 90^J

Palmetto V14

Poetry;

Alone Among Other Hills 221

Art of Doing Without, The.... 409

Ask Not of Me 620

Beyond the City 881

Companions of Man 4SI9

Contentment 442

Contrast, The 889

Death Valley, A Story of 811

Do Good, and Joy is Thine 455

Ecce Homo 767

Faith and Works 436

Good the Final Goal 52^

Goddess' of Song 88Z

God of Gold, The 7.'>7

Greatest Height, The 214

Paere

Harbingers of Spring ol3

Home Call, The 965

Hope on and Weary Not 788

Hope's Realization 245

1 Care Not 6i3

Impress of the Soul, The 869

John Storm, the Zealot 936

Let Us All Be What We Are. 406
Little Brown Log Cabin on

the Farm 59s

Lover's Walk, The 683

Love's Caress 53

Master. The 373

Mission, The Poet's 893

Moonlight in Galilee 533

Peace 38

Picture, The 441

Poet's Mission, The 893

Prayer. The 19

Quarrel, The 191

River, The 802

Song in Your Life, The 483

Steady, Son, Steady 336

Story of Death Valley, A 811

Utah 703

Vigorous Dawn, The 626

Warning, A 230

When the Old Man Has

Nuthin" To Say 784

Winter's Frolic, A 225

Work 694

Wreck, A 691

Young, Brigham 639

Y. O. U. R. Railway, The 469

Prayer 966

Prayer in Dedication of the Mem-
orial Monument 324

Prophetic Value of Sec. Two,

The 665, 75S

Questions and Answers

63, 253, 566, 976

Blessing Children at Home — 253
Convictions and Fines of the

"Raid" 63

Missing Revelations, The 566

Revelation on War 976

Real Arizona, The 52S

Sieges-Allee, Die 226, 305

Smith, Jesse N., A Eulogy 785

Smith, Joseph, The Prophet of
the Dispensation of the Fulness

of Times 81

An Unpublished Letter of the

Prophet Joseph 167

Biographical Sketch 94

Centennial Anniversary Mon-
ument 184

Century Song, A 166

Child's Remembrance of the
Last Time She Saw Joseph

Smith, A 113

Genius or Seer? 170

Joseph Smith as a Boy— (Illus-
trated) 108

Joseph Smith as a Man 114

Joseph Smith as a Philoso-
pher 123

Joseph Smith in Literature... 133
Joseph Smith, The Prophet of

the Living God 154

One Hundred Years— A Eu-
logy 82

Voice From Joseph 93

INDEX TO SUBJECTS.

Page
What Joseph Smith Did tor
the Womanhood of the

Church 179

Snapshot, A 3C1

Some Wise Sayings 34S

Splendid University, A 353

Testimony 803

The Missionary— TTie Soldier of

the Cross 693

Thrift 972

Through Doubt and Debris 948

To a Departing Missionary 96)

Too Much Vinegar Peddling 295

Topics of Moment 50, 240

Korea, The End of 240

New Treaty, The 50

Russia, Enlarged Freedom in. 52

Russia, The Jews in 24J

Russia, The Revolution in... 241
Tottering Empire 3:0

Page
Translation of the Book of Mor-
mon 425, 544

Tribute to Caesar 515

Trip to Nauvoo, A. 46

Truth Shall Make Your Free,

The 39

Umentucken— Lamb of the Moun-
tain 753

"Varieties of Light 599

Voyage of the Ship "Brooklyn"

794, 890

What Life Means to Me 745

Where Does Missionary Work

Cease ? 958

Why Do We Fail? 393

Why I Keep the Word of Wis-
dom ? 768

Why You Fail 771

Woman and a Dog, A 929

INDEX TO AUTHORS.

Allen, James X 209, 456, 599, 772

Alder, Lydia D.226, 305, 533, 639, 894
Anderson, Edward H 75,

260, 341, 419, 499, 577, 651, 739, 825, 90S

Anderson, Nephl 4S4, 96")

Baggarley, Maud 694, 753, 869

Barker, T. W 520

Barnes, Claude T 846

Bennion, Milton

.• 345, 437, 505, 640, 698, 789

Bishop, Alice Peet 88:^

Blacker, Colonel W 43«

Bollermann, W 811

Brimhall, George H 69

Christensen, J. D. M 571

Cliff, Charles 38, 7G7

Connelly, Daniel 409

Curtis, T. B 703

Done. Wlllard 114, 273, 60:;

Dcugall, William B., Jr 5f6D

Dufttn, James G 930

Emmett, Walter 405, 4G9

Evans, John Henry 170

Fox, Ruth May 223, 336, 673

Frcst, Grace Ingles... 214, 3S9, 691, 881

Gamble, G. A 46

Gates, Susa Young

21, 179, 231, 296, 308, 375

Gordon, J. A 361

Gray, Clark 183

Halls. William 39, 515, 745, 962

Hedges, Sandford W 222

Herman, Charles 215

Horner, John M 794, 890

Hull, Thomas 960

Hyd§, Wm. A 82

Ingersoll, Francis Gilbreath 921

Tenson, Andrew 94

Jensen. Nephi 7So

Johnson, Rufus D 479

Kimball, S. F 5-54, 621, 685, 76s

King, James 692

Kohlberg, W. J 573

Larsen, Jr., Lehi „ 408

Lauritzen, Annie G 245, 788

Lund, Anthon H ^6

Lyman, Albert R 393, 466, 626, 857

Lyman, Francis M 736

Marden, Orison Swett 396

Meakin, John P 248

Meha, Stuart 572

McQuarrie, Dani'el S 714

McQuarrie, John G 265, 397, 471

Merrill, Jos 721

Miller, Mrs. Sarah Rich 113

Mitton, Sarah E 455

Mulliner, H. L 913

Murdcck, David L 799

Musser, A. Milton 63

Nelson, N. L 528

Osmond, Alfred 757, 882,889

Pailev, 620

Phelps, W. W 93

Rae, Eva 442

Richards, L. L. Greene 166

Roberts, B. H 425, 534, 706, 833

Shafer, Francis M 213, 958

Smith, Jesse Winter 221

Smith, Jos. F 56, 108, 246, 230,

324, 337, 410. 493, 558, 651, 731, 803, 812

Smith, Jr., Jos. F 328, 566

Spencer, Josephine 802, 948

Stiles, K. B 483

Talmage, James E 154, 627

Tanner, J. M 50, 241, 320, 393

Tanner, M. R 230

Tennyson, Lord Alfred 527

Townsend, J. L

19, 191, 441, .513, 598, 683, 784, 893, 936

Warner, H. M 373

Weed, George Ludington 1, 192,

281, 349, 443, 534, 585, 674, 775, 870, 937

Wetmore, Mrs 856

Whitney, Orson F 135

Widtsoe, John A 123, 665, 758

Widtsoe, Osborne 15

Williams, P. S 572

Winder, John R 246

Woolley, Hubert E 9^1

Young, Richard W 35y

Young, Seymour B 895

J. B. Robbins. A. C. Keeley, R. Dumbcck
S. L. Bird, Man<g<r. S. B. Robbins

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